Making Up For Lost Time
by Reixe
Summary: On the night the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, the Shinigami tried to take the lives of both Minato and Kushina, but a loophole allowed their souls to remain free. For twelve years, Danzo has kept them hidden but now they've escaped. A family reunited, they will have their revenge, and help their son become the legend he was destined to be. NaruHina. Starts up after the Wave ARC.
1. After Twelve Years

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto in any form. All characters of this story are owned by their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended. As far as Disclaimer's go, I'll only be putting this up here once. It's already obvious I don't own Naruto. If I did, I certainly wouldn't need to dedicate a fan fiction to it.**

**AN: **Naruto's finally over. It's a little hard to believe and certainly saddening, but that's the sad truth… Doesn't mean our fandom has to die though. If anything, I think this opens new possibilities. Anyway, being a rather big fan of Naruto (it's my second favorite anime/manga. And I can't even say that for certain, considering how I still debate whether or not I love it more than Evangelion or not. So I guess it's tied for first), now that the series has finally come to an end I thought now would be the perfect time to start a new Naruto ready for quite a long tale, as this will be one of epic proportions.

Before we start, shout out to Serious Sam for being my beta for this chapter. If you aren't reading it already, you guys should totally check out their story **My Precious People**.

Well, without further ado, here's the first chapter of **Making Up For Lost Time**.

_**After Twelve Years…**_

_Crying._

That's the first thing Kushina remembered; her baby, her precious little boy, crying. This wasn't the first time she'd woken up. No, she'd slipped in and out of consciousness for years, but every single time the first thing the first thing that came to mind was her baby, her little Naruto. She wasn't sure how much time had passed in the outside world, but she was certain it had been a _long, long time. _

She wanted to see him so badly. She wanted to hold him in her arms, talk to him, care for him, and love him like only she could. She wanted to be a mother to her son so badly – but what could she do? She'd been in a coma for what seemed like years upon end, and yet things could still get worse.

Here she was, trapped in a dark cell. The bare stone floor beneath her was cold and aside from a thin blanket, some hay in the corner of the room, and two buckets in the opposite corner there were no other 'comforts' – and she used that word very loosely. She hadn't always been here; before this she'd been in a hospital room of sorts, as her captor did not want her dying. But she'd been waking up much more frequently than before, so with her out of the woods _per se_, whoever was in charge had apparently decided that she be moved to somewhere less conspicuous and more…secure.

The first time she woke up, she learned that Shimura Danzo was the one holding her captive. Minato had told her of him and his secret ANBU organization, Root. She knew he was bad news, and so did her husband – they just never thought he'd do something this treasonous…

"Kushina." The red head turned. Kneeling next to her was her one and only; the only man she'd ever loved and the father of her precious child – her husband, Namikzae Minato, the Yondaime Hokage of Konohagakure. He had been in a coma with her, in and out of consciousness much like she was. They didn't always catch each other awake, but that didn't matter as neither of them remained conscious for very long.

"Yes?" she replied, her voice weak and somewhat raspy from years of little to no use. He put his hand over hers, a deep determination showing behind his blue pools.

"I'm sorry," he replied, his voice in a similar state to hers, "It's taken so long… but I finally have enough Chakra… we're getting out of here…" Danzo had kept them weak. He had made sure that they'd never gained enough Chakra to fight back and had only given them enough care to keep them barely alive. He underestimated exactly how smart Minato was though. The Yellow Flash was no one's prisoner and he was about to prove just that.

"Get ready… We're getting out of here… and then we'll be able to see Naruto again…" Minato gave a shaky smile to his wife, who returned it with one of her own.

==X==

"And that's our report, Hokage-sama," said Kakashi. Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage sighed. He wondered why nothing was ever simple when his surrogate grandson was involved – no, nothing was ever simple at all.

"I see. Thank you, Team seven is dismissed. Kakashi, could you stay behind? There are some things I would like to further discuss with you."

Nodding, Hatake Kakashi complied with the Hokage's wishes. Turning to his students, the jōnin told them they were dismissed for the day and that they should go home and rest. Sakura nodded, a relieved smile appearing on her face. Sasuke gave his usual "Hn" and Naruto merely shrugged.

Kakashi expected the responses he received from Sakura and Sasuke, but not Naruto. He'd been too… subdued. He'd been that way ever since leaving Wave. His blond student looked like he had a lot on his mind, and the copy nin wasn't sure what was wrong with the boy.

The three genin left the room, closing the door behind them. Usually, this was around the time Sakura would ask Sasuke for a date, he'd refuse, and then Sakura would be asked out by Naruto, also refusing – however, only two of the four things occurred today though. Sakura asked Sasuke out and was rejected as usual, but when she turned around expecting to have to deal with Naruto, he'd merely looked at her briefly, seemingly lost in thought over something, before offering her a goodbye and walking away.

Sakura stood there, slack jawed and wide eyed. Naruto was acting weird.

_What the hell just happened? _She asked herself.

==X==

Uzumaki Naruto was a brash and loud boy. He was unrefined, had almost no manners and very little care for them. He didn't mind being this way; mostly because he didn't know there was any other way to be. No one had ever taught him such things. There was no one who could – scratch that, there was no one who _would._ The Hokage was a busy man, he couldn't devote a large amount of time to Naruto, and everyone else aside from Teuchi and Ayame hated the boy (he was wrong, of course, but he didn't know that).

Kakashi was a mystery to him. He honestly didn't know how the man felt about him since he seemed so indifferent in general. Despite wanting to believe otherwise, he was positive Sakura didn't enjoy his company and the only thing she did was fawn over the Uchiha. Sasuke himself thought Naruto was below him. Naruto heaved a sigh.

Truth be told, he'd not been feeling too great since his mission in Wave. Sure, they'd saved the day and all that, but that was _exactly_ why he was feeling down now. In Wave, where nobody knew him or what burden he carried, he was accepted. Hell, he was hailed as a hero but here, here in his own hometown, he couldn't walk down the street without being glared at or ignored all together. He couldn't buy anything without prices being doubled or sometimes tripled, and he couldn't go to many of the restaurants… Ramen being his favorite food isn't the only reason it's all his diet consisted of…

The contrast between the public reactions he'd received in Wave and what he received here was really getting to him and he was certainly feeling down. He wasn't sure the mask he'd created when he was younger – the one that hid his true persona could last much longer. He wasn't sure he could continue to grin and bear things – he wasn't sure he could continue being the happy knucklehead he was viewed as. He wasn't even sure he wanted to. And somewhere, in the deeper, darker parts of his heart – the parts that he couldn't fix – he wasn't sure he even wanted to remain in Konoha.

Heaving another sigh, Naruto trudged on, doing what he could to ignore the villagers around him as he made his way to his apartment. The apartment where he'd spend yet another day alone.

==X==

"So the Kyuubi's chakra has started to manifest itself?" said the Hokage, the question more rhetorical than anything. He wasn't sure he liked what he was hearing. On one hand, if Naruto could harness it correctly, the Kyuubi could be a great asset to the boy as well as the village… but on the other hand, Hiruzen knew that this could turn into a disaster.

"Yes… though, he seemed in complete control while using it, maybe a little more brutal and careless, but it was still him. Currently, Hokage-sama I'm more concerned with how he's feeling. He's been fairly reclusive since we left Wave," replied Kakashi. Any of his usual disinterest was gone. Though he acted the part most of the time, it was part of how he coped with his losses, but that didn't mean he didn't care for Naruto. He was happy to have his Sensei's son on his team, and after seeing his performance in Wave, he was determined to train his team harder. He'd almost lost his students and he was tired of losing the people important to him.

Hiruzen leaned back in his chair, inhaling from his pipe. Everything Kakashi was telling him was troubling. _Naruto was unhappy?_ That would not do. The Kyuubi could free itself based purely on the child's mental state. Hiruzen frowned, knowing something _had _to be done to ensure nothing of the sort happened.

_Maybe it's time I call for Jiraiya? The boy will certainly be happier if he learns of his godfather, and I'm sure my student would be happy to teach Minato's boy. It also wouldn't be too bad of an idea to have Jiraiya tell him of Kushina_, thought Hiruzen, _even though she had her enemies, there is little consequence if he knows of her. It would also help matters if her name unintentionally happens to slip out at some point. We've already thoroughly hidden her connection to Minato after all… Yes, this will have to do for now._

The Hokage leveled his gaze on Kakashi and said, "For now, try to bring about a friendship between him and his teammates. I will call Jiraiya and from there we…" the Hokage meant to continue, but a flash of yellow at Kakashi's back stopped him in his tracks. His eyes widened, not believing what was in front of him. Kakashi, having felt a presence turned around, and his visible eye widened much like the Sandaime's.

"S-Sensei…?"

Standing in front of him on shaky legs was the Yondaime and his wife – two people who'd been confirmed to have died the night the Kyuubi was sealed. They looked malnourished and thin, but they were certainly alive.

"We made it… I'm… So… Glad…" Minato's eyes closed and he collapsed to the floor, exhausted. Kushina, who was still capable of standing, if only barely, kneeled slowly next to her husband, worry over his condition evident in her eyes. Watching Minato fall had also shaken the Sandaime out of his shock and he immediately barked orders.

"Boar, Rabbit, seal this room! No one gets in or out unless I say otherwise! Cat, get our best medic-nins over here now. Tiger, get me Inoichi and Kakashi," the Sandaime paused here, looking the Jounin in the eyes, "Find Naruto. With everything you just told me, this couldn't have happened at a better time. I think it's time he met his parents."

==X==

Shimura Danzo was a man of few words, and even less emotion. It was rare that he let any of them show through, even anger but today – today it could not be helped. The old war hawk had underestimated his opponent and there was no way it wasn't going to come back and bite him the ass. He stared at the empty cell in fury, wondering how he could have been so careless. His frown deepened as he questioned himself, thinking over what possessed him to not find a better way to prevent Minato's actions.

Danzo sighed to himself, deciding that now was not the time to dwell over his mistakes of the past. Minato and Kushina were gone, his plans foiled, and now he would need to flee Konoha. He'd managed to avoid Hiruzen's eyes until now, but this little indiscretion would undoubtedly send the entirety of Konoha's wrath down upon him.

"Sai."

Immediately, a pale child appeared at Danzo's back, kneeling before him in a show of the utmost respect. He seemed no older than 12 and his voice sounded void, hollow of anything.

"Yes, Danzo-sama?"

"I am leaving the village, but you must stay here. Keep an eye on things, especially Uzumaki Naruto. I want reports on what happens in Konoha every so often. Make sure nothing is outdated, but don't become suspicious. That is all, you are dismissed."

And with that, Danzo walked into the shadows, intending to never set another foot in Konoha – unless it was a situation that was favorable for his ambitions…like being named Hokage.

==X==

Inoichi was led into the office where he was met with the sight of the Yondaime and his wife. His mouth dropped open and he paused, shocked beyond movement. As a ninja, and head of the Interrogation Division there wasn't much that surprised him, but when two people who were confirmed to be dead _twelve years ago _suddenly pop up alive in the Hokage's office, you're _going _to be speechless.

"Wha…?" Yamanaka Inoichi couldn't even get out a proper word.

"I shall explain later," the Hokage said as he diverted his eyes from the medic-nin healing Minato to look at Inoichi. "There's not a lot of information we have at this point, but we desperately need to know what happened. Inoichi, look through their minds and tell me what you see. Start on the day of the Kyuubi attack then work your way forward till today. And do it as quickly as possible!"

Inoichi, though still shocked knelt next to Kushina and got to work immediately. She smiled at him and nodded her head, understanding what he had to do as a medic-nin tended to her injuries. Nodding back to her, he ran through a series of hand signs before coming to a stop and staring at her.

"Seishen sanpo no jutsu!" With those words, Inoichi descended into her mind. The both of them remained motionless for nearly 15 minutes before Inoichi blinked, then blinked again before his face turned stony. He turned to the Sandaime, a deep frown of his face.

"Hokage-sama… this is _very _bad."

The Sandaime from frowned in response, but ordered Inoichi to speak and thus, the mind walker told everyone present exactly what he saw and how grave things were.

==X==

Minato had just used the Hiraishin to transport himself and the Kyuubi deep into the forest, far from Konoha and the villagers. The Sharingan was no longer in the Kyuubi's eyes, but the Yellow Flash highly doubted that the absence of it would suddenly make the enraged Bijuu more docile. In fact, it probably made the threat even worse as the fox now had control over itself and was far better at using its body than the masked Uchiha who had been manipulating it.

And ss much as Minato hated to admit it, he only had one option left. Briefly flashing away, he returned almost instantly with Kushina and their son.

"Kushina… we don't have much time… we have to seal the Kyuubi into Naruto."

Kushina's eyes widened. "No!" she screamed, "There has to be some other way! Our baby boy… We can't do that to him, Minato! He's our son!"

"There isn't time for anything else… and I certainly couldn't ask someone else to let their child bear this burden."

"But… But…" Kushina's eyes welled with tears before she buried her face into her husband's chest, sobbing. Minato tried to stay strong for her, but tears were rolling down his cheeks as well.

"I'm sorry, Kushina… this is the only option we have left…" Summoning an altar and placing Naruto on it, he turned to the Kyuubi as he ran through hand seals. Appearing behind him was an apparition clothed in a pure white Kimono. Its face was that of a demon – sharp teeth, piercing eyes of the darkest black that instilled fear instantly, and horns atop its head.

The Kyuubi, understanding what Minato intended to do narrowed its eyes and launched forward to attack him – only to be stopped dead in his tracks. Kushina, though disconnected from the Bijuu, still had some measure of control. Using her chakra chains, she bound the Kyuubi and prevented him from harming Minato and Naruto. Her husband looked to her, a sad smile on his face as he launched forward. Through the use of the Shiki Fujin, he pulled out half of the Kyuubi's chakra and sealed it into himself. The Kyuubi, dazed yet unrelenting continued to struggle as Minato turned to his son before speeding through another set of hand signs.

Roaring, the Kyuubi thrust its massive claws forward, taking advantage of a slip in Kushina's focus. She was tired, and so afraid of what her son would have to endure that her attention drifted for the briefest of moments. Seeing what would happen if they didn't intervene, Minato and Kushina, in a desperate attempt to rescue their child, jumped into the path of the Kyuubi's claws. A single claw tore through Kushina and Minato's bodies, stopping right before it could impale Naruto. Blood trickled down the Bijuu's claw, but Kushina and her husband did not care if they were to die so long as Naruto was safe.

"Hakke… Fuin," Minato struggled, crimson liquid bubbling over his lips and down his chin and then the seal activated, dragging the Kyuubi into it where it would find itself spending its foreseeable future. Only seconds after the Biju was sealed, the Shinigami who ruled over the Shiki Fujin prepared to take Minato's soul, but the Shinigami did not count on one thing – Kushina. The red headed, hot-tempered, wife of the Yondaime Hokage refused to let such a thing happen to her husband. She wouldn't allow the Shinigami to force Minato into combat with the Kyuubi within its belly; not after the sacrifices they'd already made. If they were going to die, she was going to make damn sure they at least got to rest in peace.

With the last of her strength, her chakra chains materialized and grabbed at Minato's soul, wrapping around it and pulling.

"Didn't think… I'd just let you take… his soul… did you, dattebane…?"

The Shinigami, seeing what a mere mortal was daring him to do, pulled back. The tug of war continued on, but Kushina's strength was quickly draining and the Shinigami would not be denied. With a vicious tug, it pulled forth Minato's soul, Kushina's chains, and by extension, her soul as well. With a swift downward strike, it severed their souls from their bodies and vanished as they dropped lifelessly to the ground – or at least, that's what the Shinigami thought. Kushina had not participated in the Shiki Fujin, and so by taking her soul as payment for his summoning – even if it was only a little bit of it – he voided his part of the contract. Though half of the Kyuubi remained sealed within Minato, neither he nor Kushina would have their souls taken from them as payment.

The life drained out of Kushina and Minato as they lie motionless in the clearing, their son crying all the while. Then, where there were once only three bodies, there were now seven.

Standing over the downed forms of the Yondaime Hokage and his wife were Danzo and three of his Root operatives. A small, sinister smile crept onto Danzo's lips. Before him was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.

==X==

"From there," said Inoichi, "Danzo's operatives rushed them to their base. He wanted to take Naruto as well, but after setting up suitable faux corpses of Minato and Kushina he could already hear you closing in. Seeing as how Naruto would not stop crying, he saw him as a flight risk and left him where he was. Once at his base, his operatives did everything within their power to tend to Minato's and Kushina's injuries to make sure they pulled through. It was touch and go, but thanks to Kushina's Uzumaki genes and Minato's new status as a Jinchuriki, they made it through. This was the point where Kushina passed out, and she stayed that way for quite a while. She woke up a year later based on a conversation she had with Danzo. She'd been in a coma and he told her that the minute she and Minato were out of the woods and awake he would begin turning them into his perfect weapons. After that, the two of them were conscious very infrequently over the next twelve years. This is the first time they've managed to stay awake for very long."

The Hokage was furious, his fists clenched around his pipe and within seconds, it snapped in half. He had been lenient with his old teammate, he'd tried to get him to shut down Root without having to resort to violence, but now the man had gone too far. Sarutobi Hiruzen would have Danzo's head; he swore his very life on it.

"Find Danzo," he said, looking to the ANBU who'd brought him Inoichi. "Take any reinforcements you think you need and once you locate him, alert me immediately. Danzo has severely overstepped his boundaries, and by the end of this day I will end his life. Go!"

The Anbu complied immediately. In Konoha, there was one thing that was absolute – _no one crosses the Hokage._

* * *

><p>Well, there it is. The first chapter's done. I hope to hear from you guys in the reviews. I'd like to hear your opinions and any constructive criticism you may have to help me improve. Hopefully the next chapter is up around this time next week.<p>

Translations:

Hakke Fuin: Eight Trigrams Seal

Hiraishin (no jutsu): Flying Thunder God jutsu

Jinchuriki: Power of Human Sacrifice

Shiki Fujin: Reaper Death Seal

Seishen sanpo no jutsu: Mind walk jutsu


	2. Family

**AN: **Whoa. Thanks for all the reviews. I wasn't expecting such a warm welcome. I've never gotten that many reviews on a single chapter before. It made me extra motivated to type up another chapter for you all.

**Serious Sam**: Hiashi getting an ass kicking? I'd already liked the sound of that before you suggested it, lol. Now about them moving away? Maybe not, but I don't think some time away from the village would be a bad idea at all.

**shadow-hunter104**: the reason the medic-nin didn't realize the bodies were fake will be explained soon enough. I will say though, that it has nothing to do with Akatsuki.

Before we start, just to be clear since there may have been some confusion last time, **Serious Sam **was only my beta for chapter 1 as a courtesy. As far as this chapter is concerned, it has not been beta'd. I'm looking for one right now. Anyway, once again, thanks for the reviews!

Well, without further ado, here's chapter two.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Family<strong>_

While the Anbu searched through every inch of Konoha looking for Danzo, Hiruzen stared down at his successor and the man's wife. While the damage done by malnutrition could not be taken care of right away, he was happy to see Minato and Kushina looking a little healthier than they had only moments ago. Yet, despite how things were changing for the better, the sight before him still infuriated him. For Danzo to have dared to do anything like this, it lit a flame of fury within the Sandaime's heart.

"Sarutobi-Sama," started Kushina shakily, "Naruto… Where's my baby?" Hiruzen frowned. He had already called for the boy and he knew this would be the best thing that could happen for Naruto, but he wasn't looking forward to the conversation that would follow. His successor had trusted him. He knew that even though Minato had been "dead," if he'd had time to talk to him, Minato would have requested that Hiruzen keep his boy safe; that the village look to him as a hero, and not the beast that had nearly destroyed it. The Sandaime would not lie to them when the time came. He had failed their son; he had failed them.

"Kakashi should be bringing him now. I'm sure he'll be happy beyond words when he gets to see you two," replied Hiruzen.

_After we explain that you're his parents…_

* * *

><p>Naruto had just made it to his apartment and as he slid his key into the door, he noticed the newest addition to it. It was another red scrawling of the word "Demon" written repeatedly. After he'd wiped the last set of graffiti off a few days before his mission, he hadn't seen any more of it on his door. Initially, he assumed the Konoha citizens had finally given him a break or that they were afraid of what skills he might have now that he was a shinobi – he was wrong. If they were scared, it only meant they were cautious enough to avoid messing with him while he was in the village.<p>

Grumbling about having to clean his door again, Naruto turned his key, opened the door, and walked in. Just as he was about to shut it behind him, a foot slid in the way, stopping him from doing so. Thinking it was a particularly bold citizen, he fingered a kunai, contemplating fighting back for once. His decision only lasted a split second before he loosened his grip on the weapon.

If he hurt this person, or even wound up killing them, the civilian council would just turn it on him. With only the villager he hurt as a witness or none if he killed the person, there would be no one to speak in his defense. Grimacing, Naruto opened the door. Relief washed over the orange-clad Genin as Kakashi stood in his doorway.

"Yo, Naruto," greeted Kakashi, raising his hand.

"Hey, Kakashi-Sensei," replied Naruto, his grimace shifting into a broad grin. His mask had already slipped back on, whether he knew it or not. "What are you doing here? Do we have another mission?" he asked excitedly. He wouldn't mind leaving the village again. Even if he ended up stuck with Sasuke for another week or two, it was better than staying in Konoha while he was feeling so down.

"Well, it is a mission of sorts…" started Kakashi, trailing off as his blonde student's grin grew into a full smile, "just not for you," he added, "Hokage-sama asked me to retrieve you. It's… very important." Naruto's smile faded and he wanted to ask if this could wait until tomorrow morning. He was already feeling down and didn't want to sit through a lecture that would probably be about his use of the Kyuubi's Chakra in Wave. He was a shinobi under the Hokage's command though; he knew he couldn't refuse.

"Jeez… if this is about the Kyuubi, Jiji could have just had me stay behind with you," complained Naruto, stepping back outside before shutting his door. He was about to lock it when Kakashi put his hand on the boys shoulder and in the next second they were gone, a swirl of leaves marking their exit.

* * *

><p>Hiruzen watched as Kakashi and Naruto appeared in his office. Kakashi shot an eye smile his way as he let go of Naruto's shoulder and the young Uzumaki held his stomach, looking a little sick and disoriented.<p>

"Sensei… you could have warned me before doing that," said Naruto, a hand over his mouth. Naruto vowed he wouldn't turn his back on his Sensei when he wanted to take him somewhere ever again. The risk of losing his lunch – or dry heaving – was too high for his tastes.

"Sorry, Naruto. This was urgent," replied Kakashi. Upon hearing his name, Naruto's parents looked him over. Kushina's eyes watered as she put her hands to her mouth in a silent gasp. Minato just looked on, marveling at how much his son looked like him and his wife.

"Naruto," called the Sandaime. The young Jinchuriki still hadn't looked towards them, too busy with trying to get a hold over his gag reflex to notice whom he was in the presence of. "Look this way. There are some people here I think you need to meet." The medic-nins, Inoichi, and his Anbu had all been shooed out of the room. While it had been made clear enough that Naruto was Minato and Kushina's son while he and Kushina had been healed, he thought it best for their reunion to be a more private matter.

Naruto groaned as he complied with Hiruzen's order. Turning, he was about to complain to his Sensei over the whole Shunshin thing again, but when he laid eyes on the people before him, they went wide. Initially, Minato and Kushina thought he was just surprised to see them; the Sandaime and Kakashi knew that was not the case – and the two parents were realizing it just as quickly.

"I-it-it's the Yondaime!" Yelled Naruto so loudly the shinobi waiting outside could hear him, "Jiji! It's really the Yondaime! I thought he was dead! How'd this happen? Never mind. Who cares? This is great!" Hiruzen noticed that apparently the boy held no ill will for his father. If nothing else, that was good.

"Sandaime-sama…? What…" Hiruzen's heart rate quickened as he looked to Kushina. She'd sounded so lost and looking at her now, he could see she was hurt.

"Why – why doesn't he know who we are?" Kakashi looked away as a tear streamed down Kushina's cheek and Hiruzen sighed.

"Naruto," called the Hokage once more, "Be quiet. There are some things you need to know now." Naruto, though ecstatic, caught the tone of the Sandaime's voice. The seriousness of it put a damper on his mood and made him clam up.

"There's no point in beating around the bush," started Hiruzen as he walked back to his chair and sat down. Now more than ever, the age showed on his face. His wrinkles seemed more prominent. You could see the years of sorrow and work reflected in his eyes and for the first time, Naruto noticed how fragile the man seemed at times.

"Naruto, Minato Namikaze and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki are your parents." Naruto's eyes shot towards the two of them. His mind raced; emotions swelled within him. Anger, sadness, euphoria, surprise, confusion… they overwhelmed him and the next thing he knew, something that had never happened aside from when he was beyond exhausted occurred: Naruto hit the floor with a thud, passed out.

"Hiruzen," said Kushina. This time she did not sound lost; she did not look hurt. Her voice was stern, his name came out of her mouth with no honorific, no respect. She sounded angry and looked livid. A fire burned behind her eyes – it was a rage he hadn't seen her direct at _anyone ever. _Though Shaky, Kushina stood to her feet, her fiery red hair swaying as she did. Hiruzen looked upon her visage and right now, at this very moment, _had_ _never felt so unnerved in his life_.

"You're going to tell me right now," she continued, her voice low, "Why doesn't our son know who we are?" Folding his hands in front of his face, Hiruzen sighed tiredly. The time had come.

"After I'd arrived at the scene to find the two of you 'dead' and Naruto alone and crying I scooped him up and immediately had the boy cared for. The next day I addressed the village and let them know that he was their savior, that it was your wish he be viewed as a hero – that you'd sealed the Kyuubi into him, Minato," Hiruzen paused here, expecting some sort of reaction from the boy's parents. He received none.

"I knew that you always wished the Jinchuriki could be seen for the heroes they were; not as pariah and not as mere weapons. But… I made a grave mistake. It was too soon. The hurt was still too recent in our village. We'd lost so many to the Kyuubi and the citizens – shinobi and civilians alike – did not take well to the news. They hated Naruto for merely existing and called for his immediate execution."

"They did what?!" yelled Minato, oppressive red Chakra swirling around him as his eyes changed from blue to crimson. Hiruzen dared not continue as his successor tried to reign in his emotions. Kushina went over to him and wrapped him in her arms, attempting to calm her husband. After a moment, Minato's eyes returned to their normal color and the Kyuubi's Chakra receded.

The Yondaime couldn't believe it. The village – _his home. _The place he'd sworn to protect. The place he'd attempted to sacrifice his life – his family's lives for had walked all over his will. They'd tried to have his son killed.

"Seeing the mistake I made, I passed a law – a law that made speaking of the Kyuubi forbidden, an S ranked secret punishable by death. The older generation was lost, but I'd hoped it would at least allow Naruto some friends in his own. I was wrong. The children's parents merely told them to stay away from him and in the village, he was either shown outright hate or ignored. Around his birthday it was particularly bad. There were some… incidents."

"What kind?" growled Kushina.

_So help me, _she thought,_ if they'd laid a hand on my baby, I'll run them through with my sword and my chains._

"There were a few instances in which he'd been chased by mobs seeking his death. He'd been caught and beaten once – and only once. It was the first time. I was busy and Kakashi, whom, I'd usually have keep watch over him, was out on a mission. An Anbu I thought I could trust had been appointed the task to watch over him and they decided to turn a blind eye to the manhunt… The Anbu and those responsible for the mob were executed." Minato clenched his fists. He was weak now, there was nothing he could do in his current state, but when he regained his strength he was going to show this village the error of its ways.

"Why would they do this? They had to have realized they were trying to kill their Hokage's child!"

"They did not know, Kushina."

"What? Why?!" Kushina gritted her teeth, trying to restrain herself from going out into the village right now and starting a bloodbath.

"I made that an S ranked secret as well – let me finish," said Hiruzen, raising his hand when he saw Kushina begin to respond to his words, "You and Minato had many enemies outside of Konoha. We were recovering and I could not take the risk of that of his heritage reaching the other villages – especially Iwagakure," Hiruzen took a breath, "I'm sure you're wondering why I couldn't have at least told Naruto, but the boy is excitable and after receiving such harsh treatment from the village he sought their acknowledgement. He craved attention and pulled pranks. If he knew you were his parents I have no doubt he would have told anyone, whether they were willing to listen or not. Besides… With how much they hate the boy, I did not put it past the villagers to spread his heritage to other nations. It does not matter whether they believe the boy or not. If they're smart enough to realize he could be killed over it, I'm positive the news would have spread like the wind."

"And what of Jiraiya…?" asked Minato. Surely, his Sensei had not left his son to the mercy of the village. Hiruzen shook his head.

"He's not stepped foot into the village since before the attack. Initially, he was too devastated to return here when he learned of your fate, but after that, he decided to take a proactive role in Naruto's life… just not in the way you may have wanted. Jiraiya has a role in this village. He is our spy master and his network demands his attention. He could not stay in Konoha and surely you wouldn't want him taking Naruto with him, would you? They could have both been killed that way. That is not to say he did nothing though," said the Sandaime, "he supplied Naruto with money every month and he kept tabs on any threats outside the village with direct connection to Naruto in any way – and there has been one. He has told me it is big and that he would report in more detail once he returned."

Minato and Kushina stared the Hokage down, none of them speaking. The silence dragged on for minutes and the tension in the air was palpable.

"I understand," said Minato, finally.

"As do I," added Kushina. The Sandaime was no fool though. He could see that there was more to it than just that. More than anything though, he feared he'd lost the respect of two people he cared very much about; he could only hope Naruto would take the news better when he woke up, but he doubted it.

"It's going to take some time for us to forgive you, Hiruzen," continued Minato, "but I can see that you did try. Maybe your decisions were poor; you could have done a better job, but you tried. That's more than I can say for the majority of this village."

"They will be dealt with," interjected Kushina, her tone daring any form of disagreement. Her family was all she had left and if anyone dared to mess with it, _she'd crush them._

"If it's fine with you, I'll be taking up the mantle of Hokage again once I've regained my strength. Also, tell Naruto's Sensei he will not be joining their team for training any time soon. We'll be overseeing him." Hiruzen nodded at that, glancing towards Kakashi.

_This should give me more time to whip Sakura into shape and maybe even set Sasuke straight. Having to deal with fixing all three of their problems, two of which were excessively complex, was a bit much… This though, this I can work with._

"I wouldn't dream of disagreeing, Minato-Sensei. I will say though, you should get in as much as you can within the next two months. The Chunin exams are soon and I plan to enter my team. He knows the Kage Bunshin, so you might want to take advantage of that and tell him about their special function." Minato's brows rose, surprised at what he was hearing.

"_You _have a Genin team?" he questioned, "and my son is on it? and he knows the Kage Bunshin…?" Kakashi nodded, eye smiling.

"Yes, with Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura – and he learned the Jutsu on the day he graduated."

Kushina perked up at hearing the Uchiha name, her malice slowly dissipating.

"Sasuke? Wasn't that what Miko-chan was going to name her boy? How is she doing?" Kakashi looked to Hiruzen and the Sandaime sighed.

"It seems there is still much we need to discuss…"

* * *

><p>While Hiruzen, Minato, and Kushina talked about the happenings in the village since their "deaths," the Anbu searched the village for Danzo. They tore through his home, questioned the other elders, and checked the outside of the village. While the Anbu searched, Sai watched on. The young Root shinobi noted that they hadn't located the entrance to Danzo's base yet and even if they did, the seals in place there would surely kill them.<p>

_That would not bode well. What purpose would their deaths serve? It would only lead their comrades to our door and now that the Namikaze and his wife are free, with their expertise in seals, surely they would find a way to break into the base. I must return and alert the rest of Root. We must vanish. _

His plan set, Sai used a shunshin to flee.

* * *

><p>Naruto groaned as he opened his eyes. He could hear some faint chatting around him and wondered what was going on. The last thing he remembered was coming to see the Hokage and then he was sure he must have dreamed the rest because he met his <em>dead <em>idol, the Yondaime Hokage and then the Sandaime up and told him the man was his father!

_That just couldn't have been real, _thought Naruto.

"I see you're awake," said Kakashi.

"Sensei… I had the weirdest dream… the Yondaime was alive," started Naruto, raising his body off the couch in the Hokage's office. "and he was my dad…"

"Naruto, that wasn't a dream." The young shinobi didn't recognize that voice. He'd never heard it before. Looking towards the voice his eyes fell upon his Sensei, the Hokage, and his parents…

"That… wasn't a dream…? You – you're really my dad?" he asked before looking to Kushina, "and you're my mom…?" Naruto received no verbal response and instead he found himself gasping for air as Kushina wrapped him up in the tightest hug he'd ever experienced – and that wasn't a very long list. Naruto didn't dare show his discomfort though. Despite his struggle to breathe he'd never been so warm before; he'd never felt so loved.

"Kushina, loosen your grip. He's having some trouble breathing," called Minato. Kushina reluctantly did as she was told, loosening her grips enough for Naruto to breathe, but she did not let go. Sobbing into her boy's blonde hair, her hands clutched at his shirt. It was as if she thought her child would vanish if she let go of him.

"Come on, Kushina, let's take Naruto home. We've got a lot of catching up to do." Kushina turned to her husband, tears still flowing down her face – and she smiled. The first true smile he'd seen from her in years. Nodding happily, she made for the door and Minato followed before looking back. Naruto was still standing there, seemingly confused about what to do now.

"Well, don't just stand there, son. We're going home." Beaming, Naruto caught up with his parents.

* * *

><p>Translations:<p>

Shunshin no jutsu – Body Flicker Technique

Iwagakure no Sato – Village hidden in the rocks

Well, that's chapter two. I'll have chapter three up within the next two weeks and it'll start getting into their new family life and some training. Till then, see you guys.


	3. Growth

**AN: **So glad you all liked chapter two! Thanks for the reviews once again. Seriously, you guys keep me so motivated to type on this fic. Also, I have a beta now guys. Their **zebzy1 **and they were a great help with this chapter, so a shout out to them and a thank you for their help.

**HjLostDreams: **I'm sorry, but I won't be doing anything to Kakashi. Not because I think he taught them something (he surely didn't), but because considering where I have started the fic, there is still time for him to teach Naruto and his team something significant, which he will. Naruto will be stronger too, even if I do disagree with your views on the way he progressed in power.

**Kunoichi of the Moonlit Night**: Righteous anger may not have come around yet, but it will, most likely some time after the Chunin exams. As for Kushina and Sasuke, I'm debating on having them meet before the exams, during the month's training, or after. As far as her helping him though? That will remain a surprise.

**Dragon Man 180**: Not a punch in the gut he got this chapter, I know, but considering who Naruto is and his reputation, I was trying for something a bit more… mischievous.

**DragonPony022**: They're working it out of him. I contemplated having Kushina go find Sakura, but nah. Would be too soon for her to go around maiming people. They will most likely have… _words_ later though.

**SPeCTeRII7**: Danzo left last chapter, yes. He didn't take root with him though; he didn't want to risk being caught. At most, he would take his two most trusted Root agents. Left Sai to handle things as you saw. Won't spoil how Naruto's team reacts and no they won't be bashed here, not actively anyway. This chapter answered the chakra chains question.

Well, without further ado, here's chapter three.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Growth<strong>_

Sasuke dry heaved as he backed away from Kakashi, holding his stomach. His Sensei had just sent a swift punch into his gut and as he looked over to Sakura, watching her struggle to her feet, he questioned whether or not he _really _wanted to be training right now, a thought that had never really crossed his mind before. With this, his thoughts went back to that day, about two weeks ago.

* * *

><p>Sasuke leaned against a tree on at training ground seven. He'd been woken up early by Kakashi this morning after a late night of training. His Sensei had informed him that there would be a team meeting today, despite the fact that they should have had some time off after returning from their mission in Wave yesterday. He was fine with this though; he hoped it would lead to some training; maybe Kakashi had changed his mind about the break?<p>

"Hi, Sasuke-kun!" In his mind, Sasuke sighed exasperatedly as the weakest of his teammates neared him. The pink haired girl skipped towards him happily and soon stopped at his side.

"How are you this morning, Sasuke-kun?" she chirped.

"I'm fine, Sakura," replied the Uchiha, trying to end the conversation there. He was quite tired of talking to her already and she'd only just come up to him.

"What do you think Kakashi-sensei called us for?" she inquired, not letting up on trying to get him to speak with her. Sasuke merely replied with a shrug, looking away from her. Frowning, Sakura stopped her questioning and the two of them waited in silence. After half an hour went by, she wondered where their third teammate was, but considering his absence was giving her time alone with Sasuke, she didn't think on it for long. After another thirty minutes of waiting, Kakashi appeared in front of them.

"Yo," he greeted, "Sorry for being late. I was on my way here when I saw this lost little girl. I couldn't just let that be, so I helped her find her mother." Sakura wanted to shout at him, calling him a liar, but instead she just settled for narrowing her eyes at him in a glare. She was tired of stating the obvious. Sasuke narrowed his eyes as well, his glare much more menacing than Sakura's. Neither of them managed to elicit any sort of reaction from their sensei though.

"Seems that we're all here, so let's get started."

"But Sensei, Naruto's not here," said Sakura, confused.

"I'm aware of that Sakura. Naruto won't be joining us. Now, First things first, I'm going to cut to the chase. Team Seven is going to be training a lot harder starting from today." While Sakura didn't think to ask anything more on the subject – her mind now filled with dread at having to train even more – Sasuke was different. He was excited; he'd finally be making steps towards his ambition. Aside from that, he wondered if this had anything to do with Naruto.

"Does you increasing our training have anything to do with Naruto's absence?" asked Sasuke. The question sounded simple enough, but Kakashi knew better. He could hear the arrogance in Sasuke's voice and was sure the question, instead of being as innocent as it sounded, translated into the following:

"You're getting serious now that the dobe isn't here to hold anyone back?"

In a rare display of seriousness from their Sensei, he narrowed his eyes at the Uchiha.

"Yes Sasuke, it does have to do with Naruto's absence, but not for the reasons you think. I'm going to be honest here. Thus far, I've not done as good of a job at teaching the three of you as I should have. While that fault is mine, you three did contribute to it," started the Copy-nin, "You, Naruto, and Sakura all have amazing potential as shinobi, but the three of you all have one glaring flaw and before I could train any of you properly these flaws needed to be addressed."

"What flaw?" challenged Sasuke, "I'm an excellent shinobi."

"Yes Sasuke, you're a very strong _Genin_.The flaw is not with your skills. It's with your personalities. Sakura, I'll be blunt. You're a fan girl. You're too focused on Sasuke and that has severely crippled your abilities as a shinobi. This isn't school anymore and your book smarts alone won't get you through a mission. You need to be able to apply what you've learned and you just don't have the physical ability a shinobi needs to do so. Your two teammates are far ahead of you, but we _will _remedy that. _Thoroughly._"

Sakura hung her head, not expecting to hear such a thing from her Sensei. Sasuke, on the other hand, smirked. He figured that now, maybe she'd finally take things seriously.

"Don't smirk Sasuke. I said all three of you had flaws," chastised Kakashi, wiping the smirk of the young Uchiha's face. "Your flaw Sasuke, is your arrogance. You believe you are better than all your peers – even though you're not. You were the strongest when you left the academy, but I assure you that you're not even a match for last year's _Dead Last_ and their Rookie of the Year would crush you as you are now. Simply being of the Uchiha clan does not make you a cut above the rest. With training, anyone can surpass someone they could not defeat before. What makes you think you can even still defeat those you graduated with? Do not let your arrogance blind you. Aside from that, You're driven to reach your goal, to kill _that man _but you need to realize that you might not be able to do that alone. The man you want to kill is years ahead of you in terms of experience and I'm sure he's not just slacking off while you train. You _might _not be able to catch up – not by yourself. Don't isolate yourself Sasuke. I speak from experience when I say you can't do everything alone. You and I were alike and I learned the hard way what I'm telling you now."

Sasuke seethed, but said nothing.

"What… what about Naruto's flaws?" asked Sakura, hoping that having them pointed out could possibly make Sasuke (and her) feel better.

"This village doesn't like him. At all. He's been alone for a large portion of his life and it's affected him deeply. He hides his fears and his anger behind a mask of idiocy and loudness, but I'm not sure how much longer that could have held. He needed people to believe in him and push him to do his best instead of trying to destroy all he's worked for. If he hadn't gotten them, I'm sure Naruto would have broken apart at some point or gotten himself killed on a mission because he was trying too hard to prove himself – or simply because he was tired of living in a place that hated him."

Silence followed him explanation before he continued.

"Like I said, the three of you have great potential, but juggling your training while trying to devise a plan to deal with each of your flaws – two of which required a delicate hand if I was to tackle all three at once – was taxing. Not to mention I also needed to actually get you three functioning as a proper team. I can't do everything at once. Naruto is gone now though; he's currently training with two people who care a great deal for his well being. He won't be training with us for two months, which gives me time to whip you two into shape as well as work on your flaws. And you should know Sasuke, I'm training you so hard, not simply because Naruto is gone. The thing is, if I don't make you as strong as I can in these two months, when Naruto comes back you won't be able to hold a candle to his skill."

Bristling at this, Sasuke balled his fists, determined to make sure he stayed the best and prove Kakashi wrong.

"Now then, let's get started."

* * *

><p>"Don't space out Sasuke," chastised the copy-nin as he landed a flawless leg sweep against the distracted Uchiha. Sasuke hit the dirt, the back of his head smacking against it first. Before he could scramble to his feet, he found a Kunai to his throat with his teacher kneeling over him in a nonchalant manner that pissed him off more than anything right now.<p>

"You've lost," said Kakashi as he stood, "This sparring session is over. Time to move on to the next step in today's training. Sakura, go find Kurenai for your daily Genjutsu training. Sasuke, come with me. We'll be working on your Sharingan a bit more today." Kakashi's students followed his orders and as they went their separate ways, a lone girl hid behind a tree, watching them. She didn't move when they left, despite the fact she might be late for her own training if she didn't get going. She was too concerned with one thing – she was worried about Naruto.

* * *

><p>Naruto cursed as <em>another <em>chain ripped through his _last _orange jumpsuit. Right now, he and his mother were on the Namikaze-Uzumaki clan's personal training grounds. Kushina was currently evaluating him on the use of the Uzumaki clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains. It was his clan's Kekkei Genkai and when he returned to his team, he was _so _rubbing it into Sasuke's smug face.

_Teme thought he was the only one with cool bloodline stuff that couldn't be copied. I'll show him, ttebayo!_

A month had passed since he'd been reunited with his parents and to say that they'd been training him into the dirt and even the roots below it was an understatement. As he repelled one of his mother's chains with his own, he thought back to the first day he'd arrived here and the days that followed.

* * *

><p>Naruto and his parents had just left the Hokage's office and before the boy could even think to ask then which way they'd be going, his father put his hand on his and his mother's shoulders. Naruto had a sinking suspicion he knew where Kakashi got this idea from. Before the young boy could protest, the three of them had vanished in a flash of yellow.<p>

Appearing in a rather spacious living room, Naruto waited for his stomach to do flips like it had with Kakashi's shunshin, but the sensation never came – in fact, he found that he rather _enjoyed _the Hiraishin. He couldn't explain it, but it just felt… right.

"Welcome home, Naruto!" exclaimed Kushina giddily as she turned on the lights. Naruto looked around, noting how the living room was far larger than his. There were three couches and two coffee tables. A love seat was on the right end of the room and a leather chair on the left, near a fireplace. All the chairs were facing a single wall, which is where the TV was. His parents quickly gave him a tour of the Namikaze-Uzumaki clan grounds (which were humongous) before they took him back to the living room and proceeded to cut to the chase and tell him what Sarutobi had done concerning his lack of knowledge of them and why he did it.

The conversation had been a hard one; Kushina and Minato struggled to keep their cool as they related the story to Naruto. Their rage has subsided while they enjoyed time with their son, but now that they had to think about it again, they were seething. Naruto himself merely listened. When his parents finished they waited for his response.

Naruto wasn't the type to hold grudges. Hell, when he cared for someone he wasn't even the type to _truly _get angry at them and he'd always been an understanding boy. Anyone who knew the boy well wouldn't think his next words to be surprising at all.

"I understand. Jiji did what he could and that's all I can really ask for. I'll prank him, and that'll be that. We'll be even," grinned Naruto as he'd already begun thinking about what prank to pull on his grandfather figure. Minato and Kushina looked at the boy in mild surprise, not expecting him to take the news so well. He'd taken it better than they had and that's when they realized how amazingly special their son was. Already feeling proud of him, they talked for the rest of the night, determined to learn all they could.

Naruto told his parents about his team, his few friends, and his other classmates. When he talked about Sasuke, they both frowned. They knew the boys position, but that didn't mean he had to act the way he did. If nothing else, they needed to set him right. They continued to listen more until he got to Sakura, expressing his feelings for the pinkette. Unfortunately (for Sakura), he also told them of her reactions and her attitude with Sasuke. This resulted in his mother ranting about girls, the type of woman she wanted her son to be with, and how Sakura was not _under any circumstances _worth pursuing at this time.

When Naruto asked if it would be alright after she'd matured a little, his mother fixed him with his first ever "motherly glare of submission or die" and told him that he was better off with someone else. Naruto simply nodded frantically (frightened far more than even when Zabuza wanted to kill him and his team) and decided to give his mother's words some thought. After working some of the fear out of his system Naruto went on to talk about two people he felt he could call friends: Shikamaru and Choji. Telling his parents of how he used to watch clouds with Shikamaru and share snacks with Choji sometimes brought a smile to Minato and Kushina's faces. They were happy to hear that their son wasn't as alone as they had thought.

"My other classmates are okay, I guess," stated Naruto as he went into further detail. He told his parents about Kiba and Ino. Once they heard how Kiba teased Naruto for things like his bad grades – while not having amazing grades himself – they determined he was just looking for a way to make sure he wasn't teased. That didn't mean he needed to make Naruto his scapegoat though.

As for Ino, they found her to be just as disgraceful to Kunoichi as Sakura. Her fan girl mentality had surely crippled her abilities as a shinobi and they only hoped she snapped out of it before she got herself or her teammates killed. Briefly, they wondered what would happen if she had to fight Sasuke during the exams. They didn't think her drive to win would outweigh her crush on the boy and even if it did, Sasuke hadn't slacked off based on his status as Rookie of the Year. The boy would likely pick her apart.

Moving on to Shino, Naruto told his folks that the boy was very quiet, but didn't seem to dislike him. In turn, his parents told their son that that's just how the Aburame family was. They also told Naruto to try and befriend the boy because he could likely relate to him.

"How can he relate to me?" inquired Naruto.

"Well," started his father, "The Aburame family uses bugs as an essential part of their Jutsu. Plenty of the villagers find them creepy for that. He can probably relate to how you feel when it comes to being judged based on what is inside of him instead of who he is." Thinking over his father's words with a hum, Naruto nodded before reaching his last classmate, Hinata.

"She seems nice enough," said their son as he leaned into the couch, "but she's pretty weird. She always talks with a stutter, which isn't bad or anything… but I think she's always sick or something." Kushina raised a slender, red, brow at this.

"Why?"

"Whenever I talk to her she always turns red… and then she faints. I hope she's gotten better since graduation. She could be in danger if she was that sick on missions," said Naruto, showing concern for the girl. She was weird, yes, but he didn't really think that was a bad thing and he wouldn't wish her harm just because he thought she was. He'd be no different from the villagers if he did such a thing.

Unlike their son, Minato and Kushina could easily see what was going on and smiled. They weren't yet sure if Hinata's feelings for their child was anything more than a simple crush, but they were at least pleased to know that there may be someone in his generation who saw Naruto in such a way. For now, they would simply hope that he and the girl could become friends. If nothing else, they knew their son needed a better female friend in his life than Sakura.

Following that night, Naruto was told that the two of them would now be training him personally for the next two months and that they'd be starting with his academics, since they were still in no condition to be able to physically train him. Naruto grumbled at this, but after a talking to from his father about the usefulness of tactics, history, and geography and how he used them quite often to help him win battles, the younger of the two blondes eventually gave in – especially when he was told about how he could remember anything a Kage Bunshin experienced. He was thankful for this, because once his mother introduced him to Fuinjutsu he didn't want to read anything else.

"Why does this seem so… easy? I mean, I always heard Fuinjutsu was really hard to figure out – so you know… I never tried it, but I just… _get this_. I don't understand." Kushina smiled at her son, having already figured he'd have a reaction like this. Kneeling next to him on the floor of their patio, looking over all the scrolls laid out in front of him, she replied.

"Well, Naruto, that's simple. You see, the Uzumaki clan have a few special traits… we have an unrivaled longevity, and we heal faster than others as well. Our Chakra reserves are quite large too. Aside from that, some of us have the ability to develop our Kekkei Genkai, which through the use of Yin release, allows us to create chains from our chakra known as Adamantine Sealing Chains. That's not our only Kekkei Genkai though. We have one more, but it's more of a passive thing and since we never talked about it to _anyone _outside of those we could trust with our lives, no one knows about it. You see, our clan's second Kekkei Genkai is known as Mugen Toshokan. It's nothing too extravagant – but it's nothing to slouch at either," said Kushina upon seeing Naruto's reaction to the name of their most devastating Kekkei Genkai.

"The Mugen Toshokan allows us to have the most intimate understanding of the sealing arts on the planet. It's why the Uzumaki clan was feared for our seals. Fuinjutsu is simple to us – it comes naturally, like breathing and this is all thanks to Mugen Toshokan. No matter how complex the Fuinjutsu, it won't take you long to understand it nor will it be hard for you to create advanced seals of your own." Naruto nodded, now having a better opinion of his clan's more subtle Kekkei Genkai.

A few weeks passed and through the use of Kage Bunshin Naruto was able to jump leaps and bounds in his academics and as far as Fuinjutsu was concerned he was already conjuring up some seals that most Jounin couldn't comprehend. Now though, he could finally get to the parts of training he loved most – the physical aspect. His parents had recovered enough strength to start it and he was beyond excited.

"Now Son," started Minato, "Kakashi told me he planned to enter your team in the Chunin exams." Naruto's eyes widened. "With that in mind, we've got a little over a month to get you prepared while rebuilding you from scratch. You're going to learn Uzumaki Kenjutsu and Taijutsu. We'll be strengthening your body and improving your speed tenfold. You'll also be learning how to use nature transformation as well as Yin release so we can get you started on learning your other Kekkei Genkai."

"Not only that," added Kushina, "but I convinced Minato here to teach you the Hiraishin. Your understanding of Fuinjutsu should make learning it a piece of cake compared to anyone else. We'll be putting your tactical thinking to the test as well. Your shadow clones are about to get some major use, because without them you won't be able to learn all of this in a month. Are you ready, Naruto?" Their son merely nodded. He would make them proud.

"Good, because during the final part of the Chunin exams, which I fully expect you to make it to, I'll have already become acting Hokage again. I'll be reinstated during the one month intermission between the second part of the exams and the third. During this time, we'll have explained what really happened on your birthday and you will be revealed as my heir. This village needs to be set straight."

* * *

><p>"Naru! Pay attention!" yelled his mother as one of her rapidly moving chains flew at him from above. Chastising himself for his own carelessness he vanished in a blur of speed, dodging the chain that then slammed into the ground, splitting the earth and kicking up chunks of it. He shivered, not wanting to think of what might have happened had he been hit by that as he appeared behind his mother, a chain of his own already scything towards her.<p>

Out of his field of vision, Kushina smiled, proud of the progress her son was making.

* * *

><p>While Naruto was fighting his mother on the Namikaze-Uzumaki clan grounds, across the village, at training ground seven, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma had set their students up for some friendly sparring matches to see how far they'd progressed. Everyone arrived but Naruto and his absence didn't go unnoticed.<p>

"Where's Naruto?" asked Ino. Saying she cared may be a bit of a stretch, but she was curious and a gossip. She wanted to know if he'd gotten in trouble or something. Hinata listened intently though. She'd been worried about him for the past month and now she may finally get some answers on where her secret crush may be.

As a select few Jounin (Gai, Kurenai, Asuma, and the clan heads of the major ninja clans) had been briefed on the return of the Yondaime, they already knew where Naruto was, but their students certainly didn't and for now it would stay that way. Still Kakashi had to tell them something. He figured, at this point, some half-truths were in order.

"Two members of Naruto's clan made their way here a month ago. They've taken up his training until the Chunin exams," replied Kakashi. He'd already told his students they'd been nominated and he assumed Kurenai and Asuma had informed their teams as well.

"N-naruto-kun has a c-clan?" stammered the ever-shy Hyuga.

"Were they powerful?" inquired Sasuke.

"Yes, and yes," replied Kakashi, "The Uzumaki Clan were feared across the elemental nations for their mastery of Fuinjutsu. They weren't just a simple clan either, but the leading clan of a whole village. The village hidden by the whirling tides, Uzushiogakure was their home. Konoha had close ties with Uzushio, which is why we wear their clan symbol on our flak jackets," said the copy-nin, pointing to the red swirl, "It's in honor of them."

Shikamaru furrowed his brow, already having come to the conclusion that something had happened to the Uzumaki when Kakashi had said they "were feared."

"Were?" asked Kiba, "What happened to them?"

"The same thing that happened to the Uchiha clan," replied the copy-nin, shocking the young Genin, especially a certain vengeful Uchiha, "They were wiped out. It happened during the period of world wars. Fearing their might, Iwa, Kiri, and Kumo banded together to destroy the village and they succeeded – but not without casualty. Though most Uzumaki died in the end – the survivors being scattered across the nations in their desperation to flee – they killed a little over half of the force that attacked them. They'd been outnumbered greatly, so you can understand how strong they had to be to defeat half of their attackers, I'm sure."

"Why didn't we learn about this in the Academy?" asked Sakura. She'd read through all the material thoroughly when she'd attended and she'd never even seen the clan mentioned once. Kakashi glanced to the other Jounin, which didn't go unnoticed by their Genin.

"Let's just say the village became… misguided. With two Uzumaki back in the village and Naruto undoubtedly becoming a clan heir, I don't see that piece of information remaining buried for very long," replied Kakashi. Before the Genin could ask further questions, Kurenai took charge and started their training.

* * *

><p>Naruto groaned as he fell into his seat at the dinner table. Much like every day before, today had been painful. His training was going well – no doubt about that – but it left him extremely exhausted by the end of the day. Thankfully, his resilience as an Uzumaki and the Kyuubi made him more than ready to go through the same experience the next day.<p>

Of course that didn't mean he liked the bruises.

"Tired, Naru?" asked Kushina, smirking as she put down a bowl of Ramen in front of her son. Naruto was pleased when he found out he got his appetite for Ramen from his mother _and _his father. The two of them gave the boy a run for his money and he guessed he only beat them when it came to devouring the delicious food of the gods because he'd inherited both of their love for the noodle-tastic goodness.

Kushina would have gotten a reply out of her son if it hadn't been for a scream from Minato startling them. There was silence as the two of them looked at each other, eyes wide – right up until devilish smirks graced their features.

"Looks like he found out," smiled Kushina as she went back into the kitchen for another bowl. Her only reply was a tired grunt. Minato ran into the room, glaring at his wife and his son who looked at him as if they were innocent (one of them was tired with a black eye, but meh, details) little angels.

"You two," growled Minato.

"Yes, dear?" chirped Kushina in question.

"Don't 'yes, dear' me! My hair! My hair, Kushina! Why!? I thought the two of you had already gotten even!" he screamed, pointing to his head.

What Minato was referring to was his now neon green hair that had streaks of bright orange and pink in it. Why was his hair like this, you may ask? The answer is simple. He'd been pranked – and by his own family at that. As for why this prank had been carried out, that answer was also simple.

Payback.

It may have been true that Naruto didn't hold grudges, but he had the chance in front of him to get back at his father for the sealing and with some convincing from his mother – who was still a little miffed at her husband for doing it in the first place – Naruto decided to go through with his plans. Thus their prank was born. Two weeks ago Naruto dyed Minato's hair purple and Kushina used Fuinjutsu to make it permanent – oh, and one more thing. His hair would change into a random color every two weeks until the two months of training were up, at which point, he'd get his normal hair color back. Minato hadn't known about that last bit though.

"You look handsome, dear. Green suits you," replied Kushina, trying to hold back a fit of giggles. Naruto tried as well and after they managed to remain silent while Minato pouted, the three of them began dinner.

Naruto looked to his parents and smiled.

He could definitely get used to this.

* * *

><p>Translations:<p>

Sharingan – Copy Wheel Eye

Genjutsu – Illusionary techniques

Kekkei Genkai – Bloodline Limit

Fuinjutsu – Sealing Techniques

Mugen Toshokan – Infinite Library

Kenjutsu – Sword techniques

Taijutsu – Body techniques

Ninjutsu – Ninja techniques

Uzushiogakure no sato – The Village Hidden among the Whirling Tides

Well, that's chapter three. Do you guys think it's odd for them to have a flat screen? Personally, I don't. I mean, Naruto had a laptop at the end of the series. I'm sure there must have been technology before then. Also, some of you may be wondering why I didn't have Naruto feel so angry about the Sandaime's laws and the Kyuubi thing. It's because I intend to keep some canon personality traits and let's be honest here, Naruto's just not the type to blow up like that. Not over things like this (granted he would need the full story first, which he received). He's a very forgiving and understanding person (you have to be with friends like Sasuke and Sakura, good God. Personally, I would have snapped and maimed both of them with the help of the Kyuubi). Anyway, I'll have chapter four up within the next two weeks and it'll start getting into the Chunin exams. Till then, see you guys.


	4. The Chunin Exams Begin

**AN: **Whoa. Over 100 reviews? And it was only chapter 3? That's just… wow. All I can even think to say is thank you all soooo much. I'm so happy you like my story this much. Seeing how much you guys like this, and being able to read all your reviews makes my day.

**NarutoKushina: **He'll show up the same time he did in canon. Tsunade will still come back to the village as well, the reasons for her return will just be different, of course.

**Narutofangirl145:**Some will and some won't so they can fit certain roles. I don't want it just being team seven that grows either, but there are certain things I need from each character right now.

**FallenQueen2**: Invasion? Yes. Will Orochimaru be the one invading? That's a secret.

**Serious Sam: **Spite, huh? Not sure about that. I think Naruto may listen to them on this simply because he hasn't ever been around his parents before. Then again, that may be a good reason for him _not _to listen too… hm… decisions, decisions.

**thor94: **He may get the yin half back, but I haven't completely decided yet and I know it won't be for a while anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it too much for now.

**DragonPony022**: Personally, I don't think him having his parents would stop him from wanting to save Sasuke as badly as he did. Regardless of them being there now, Naruto still had plenty of years to feel the same pain that Sasuke did, so if I do have the little brooding Uchiha leave, there's no guarantee Naruto won't be as desperate to save him as he was in canon. Furthermore, if anyone Naruto holds dear happens to die (like how Jiraiya did in canon) he would come to understand Sasuke even more. Whether we fans like it or not, they shared some similarities that tied them together very closely. With that in mind, it's possible he may try and save him. But this all hinges on one thing anyway: whether or not I have Sasuke leave.

A thanks to **zebzy1** for their awesome work as my beta!

Let's get chapter four started!

* * *

><p><em><strong>The Chunin Exams Begin<strong>_

Naruto looked himself in the mirror, admiring his new outfit. He'd lost the last of his much loved orange jumpsuits a month ago at the hands of his mother and her chains. Since then, he'd been wearing nothing but T-shirts and pants to training and when those were sliced up too, he went to training with shorts and no shirt. Now that the grueling training was finally over though, he'd received some new clothes from his mother. At first, he feared he'd lose his favorite color, but found that it did not vanish completely from his new wardrobe.

Naruto wore an orange, hooded shirt and over that was a black pullover that lacked a hood. On the back of the pullover was the Uzumaki Clan symbol, which now represented the Namikaze clan as well. The pullover was sleeveless which was fine with Naruto, as his right arm was wrapped in orange chains up to his elbow. Covering his lower body were black shorts that cut off below his knees. On the sides of the shorts were orange lines from the waist down. Wrapping up his new wardrobe were black ninja sandals and his headband, which he now wore around his neck, much like a certain Hyuga he knew. He thought to keep wearing it on his head, but no one could see it there if he had his hood up. He really didn't want to be mistaken for some non-Konoha shinobi.

"Hurry up, Naru! It's already an hour passed the time Kakashi wanted you all to meet. He'll probably be there soon," called Kushina from the living room. Heeding his mother's words, the young ninja vanished from his room with a shunshin (which he'd gotten used to. Kakashi wouldn't be catching him off guard with one ever again) and appeared near the door.

"Don't worry. I won't be late. Bye mom!" Naruto waved to her as he exited and she waved back, smiling. Once her son was out of the house, Kushina flopped on the couch to relax a little before she had to go meet Minato at the Hokage Tower.

Naruto sped through the streets of the village, moving so quickly that no one could even see a blur. It didn't take him long to reach training ground seven and as he saw his teammates in the distance he slowed to a jog and approached.

"Hey guys!" greeted Naruto with a large grin. Sasuke and Sakura looked at their blonde teammate as if they'd never seen him before. It probably didn't help that he was wearing his hood right now, despite the color of it – which should have been a giveaway. Realizing this, he pulled the hood down, still grinning.

"Naruto…?" asked Sakura slowly, "Is that… really you?" Her blonde teammate nodded, before pulling his hood back up. Naruto liked his hood; it helped him get around the village without getting any glares. As long as he didn't look at anyone directly, no one saw his face and he could walk around freely.

"What happened to your orange jumpsuit? This is an improvement _by far_, but I never thought you'd willingly change your style." Scratching the back of his head as he gave an awkward chuckle, Naruto replied.

"I kind of didn't… but when all your clothes get shredded from training well – there's not much one can do about that. More importantly, how are you guys? Ready for the Chunin exams?"

Sakura, though nervous, nodded. Sasuke smirked.

"Of course we are. Kakashi's been training us into the ground. What about you, Dobe?" a vein bulged on Naruto's head and for a moment he contemplated hitting the Uchiha. Sasuke was, for some reason, the one person who could truly get under his skin.

"Yeah, Teme, I am. I've got a whole new bag of tricks you couldn't even dream of," replied Naruto.

"Hn," replied the Uchiha, closing his eyes only to open them a moment later, his Sharingan now present, showing off three tomoe in each eye.

"Is that so?"

While Kakashi had been working with Sasuke on his arrogance problem, and while the Uchiha was showing improvement (even if that was going slowly), there was one person the Uchiha couldn't help but try to prove he was superior to, no matter what – and that person was Naruto. Though the Uchiha would never admit it, he supposed the blonde was whom he considered to be his greatest rival.

Naruto, not backing down in the presence of a completed Sharingan, merely willed three orange chains to extend out of his left arm as if they were surfacing out of water. Knowing he had the attention of his teammates now, he replied.

"Yeah, it is." Naruto and Sasuke stared each other down as the wind ruffled the leaves of the tree they were all standing under, it's shadow dancing against the swaying grass below. The two of them had only been around each other for less than two minutes and they already wanted to test each other and see what the other had learned since they'd separated two months ago.

"I see that you two are already itching for a fight," came the voice of their Sensei, drawing their attention. Kakashi walked up to the three Genin, his little orange book in his hand as usual.

"How about the two of you don't though," added the copy-nin, "save it for the exams." Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other once more and after a brief moment Sasuke's eyes shifted back to normal and Naruto's chains receded back into his arm.

"What were those chains, Dobe?" inquired Sasuke, curious about the technique. He could already imagine how such a technique could be useful. If he were lucky, maybe he'd be able to copy it from the blonde. As if he knew exactly what was going through Sasuke's mind, Naruto smirked.

"My clan's Kekkei Genkai." Sasuke's eyebrows rose, the only thing showing his surprise, while Sakura spoke up.

"You have a Kekkei Genkai? What does it do?"

"Well Sakura," started Naruto. Already, his sentence had caught the attention of all three members of his team.

He'd actually just referred to the pinkette as Sakura and not Sakura-chan. Truthfully, Naruto's crush on her hadn't gone away. As it stood he was still thinking about what his mother had told him about girls for the past two months… but the last time he'd referred to Sakura as "Sakura-chan" Kushina had promptly hung him by their living room's ceiling fan using her chains. The damned thing was sturdy too, so the fan never broke and at the time, Naruto wasn't proficient enough with his own chains to break his mother's. He wasn't set free until the next morning.

Naruto promised he would never call her "Sakura-chan" again.

_Minato-Sensei, Kushina… what did you do to the boy…? _Wondered Kakashi.

"My Kekkei Genkai lets me form Chakra chains known as Adamantine Sealing Chains through Yin Release. Theoretically, if you learned Yin Release then you'd be able to form them too, but mine are special as they are formed with a preprogrammed ability to assist in Fuinjutsu and they're immune to some chakra natures. Furthermore, there are some – modes of sorts… but you guys will just have to wait if you want to see those." Naruto grinned and Sakura just blinked back at him.

"What chakra natures are they immune to?" asked Sasuke, hoping that he'd at least be able to combat his teammates chains with one of his two elements.

"Fire, Wind, and water." Sasuke smirked, that still left him with lightning and now he was much more pleased with the fact Kakashi had trained him in Lightning Release.

"While I'd love to stand here and listen to the results of your training," said Kakashi, "The exams will be starting soon and you three need to get going." His three students gave no complaints and thus Kakashi led them away. Their walk through the village was brief, but they had filled it with chatter – to be more precise, Sakura filled it with chatter. Naruto had listened and for the first time in… well, ever, he found her to be getting on his nerves.

He wasn't _really _annoyed like Sasuke was or anything, but he was finding her chatter to be aggravating. He assumed he never noticed it before because while she'd talk to Sasuke, he'd be trying to talk to her. When he thought about it like that, he could understand why he never found her words irritating – even if all she talked about was how annoying Ino was and how she and Sasuke should be going on a date sometime soon. Glancing at Sasuke, he saw that the Uchiha was blocking her out so skillfully it was scary. Briefly, the blonde wondered if Sasuke knew a jutsu for that…

"Sakura," called Naruto, hoping to change the subject. He wouldn't mind hearing her talk as long as it was about something else.

"What?!" She growled, rounding on him with her fist raised. Naruto took in her posture, noting that it screamed hostile and his mind wandered back to some things his mother had told him.

* * *

><p>Naruto and his mom were taking a break from their Taijutsu training. The two of them were in the kitchen and Kushina had just prepared some cold lemonade to refresh them a bit before they had to head back out. Naruto was taking sips of his, savoring the taste. He'd never had homemade lemonade before and he'd already added it to his rapidly growing list of things he absolutely loved about his mother.<p>

Aside from how affectionate and patient Kushina was with him, her skills in the kitchen were amazing and according to his father, Naruto didn't just think that simply because no one had ever really cooked for him before (Minato insisted Teuchi didn't count, as that was his job). Kushina was in fact, a cooking goddess.

"This is great, mom!" complimented Naruto, a large grin on his face. Kushina returned the grin with a warm smile as she sat across from him.

"Thanks, Naru." The two of them sat in silence for a little bit longer before Kushina spoke up.

"So, Naru, it's time we had another little talk…" Naruto gulped, remembering that the last time she'd used the words "little talk" he'd somehow ended up hanging from the ceiling fan for the night.

"Y-yes…?"

"You've told me how this Haruno girl always hits you, right? What did you do? To make her do that, I mean." Naruto's face scrunched up as he thought back to the incidents in question. He could remember a lot of them, even if he didn't want to.

"Well," he started, looking away from his mother, "Aside from the occasional Orioke no Jutsu – which I won't do anymore!" he blurted out, noticing the glare his mother had leveled at him. He'd told her about creating that and she immediately smacked him upside the head – and then told him he would be getting no ramen for a week.

Needless to say, Naruto had been devastated.

"She'd usually hit me when I tried asking her out, or sometimes when I tried talking to her while she was trying to get a date out of Sasuke," he finished. Kushina immediately frowned at this. In her mind, she'd already come to the decision to have… _words _with Sakura. Now? Now she was deciding how many times they would need to have these… _words._

Kushina didn't actually plan to hurt the girl. She wasn't the type to beat on a child, no matter how much they pissed her off. That didn't mean she'd just let the girl get away with what she'd been doing to her son though.

_Maybe_, thought Kushina,_ a little Genjutsu is in order… just enough to get the message across._

"Don't let her do that to you anymore. Aside from when you used that Jutsu of yours, she had no right to put her hands on you. Most girls don't hit people for asking them out and _especially _not for just talking to them. As long as you hadn't been physical with her when you did those things, she's in the wrong. If she ever does it again, _you_ _make her regret it._"

Naruto simply nodded, not quite sure what to say.

* * *

><p>Naruto didn't really want to hurt his teammate, especially not before the exams. He wasn't sure they'd be physical, but considering all the training recently, he figured they most likely were. With that in mind, he opted to just let her be, lest he break her wrist or something on accident.<p>

"Never mind, Sakura." He looked ahead of him now, intent on ignoring the rest of her rant to Sasuke. His parents had told him Kakashi intended to try to straighten out Sasuke and Sakura, but he didn't think they'd change after only a month or two. He could already see that the seeds had been planted in them though.

Two months ago, Sasuke wouldn't have asked him if he was ready for the exams. He would have stayed quiet and put him down later when he made a mistake. Likewise, Sakura would have outright hit him if he interrupted her talk with Sasuke two months ago, and she certainly wouldn't have been as interested in his Kekkei Genkai as she had been earlier.

Naruto knew he still had some personality flaws to clean up himself, so if he wasn't a completely changed man, why should he expect them to have magically changed? It would take more time than this, he knew that now and he was okay with hit.

_Maybe I can even help them change… _

"We're here," said Kakashi, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts. The blonde focused his eyes ahead to see the academy.

"Head on up to the third floor, room 301. That's where the exams begin."

"You're not coming with us?" asked Sakura.

"Of course not," replied the copy-nin, "From this point on I'm not allowed to help you." With that, Kakashi vanished in a shunshin.

"Well, let's head inside you guy. The Chunin exams await!" exclaimed Naruto before heading inside, his teammates following behind him. The walk up to the second floor was a peaceful one, but that all changed once they actually got there. Chunin hopefuls flooded the halls, all of them trying to get into a room blocked off by two ninja.

"Let us through!" yelled one of the Genin, irritated.

"Yeah! We wanna take the Chunin exams!" Sasuke raised an eye at this, wondering if what he was seeing right now was serious. Sakura looked up to the door being guarded by the ninja and frowned – the room number read 201.

"Isn't this a-"

"Genjutsu," interjected Naruto, cutting the pinkette off and causing his teammates to look at him oddly. He knew why; he'd never been able to properly recognize a Genjutsu before. The young Namikaze still couldn't cast one, but his parents had made sure he could identify and dispel them before the two months were up.

Sasuke, being the first one to snap out of his confusion over Naruto spotting a Genjutsu gave his usual reply of "Hn" before saying they should go and make them dispel it.

"That's probably a bad idea, Teme." Sasuke turned to his blonde teammate and glared.

"What would you know, Dobe?"

"I know that we don't need more competition. Especially if they're not good enough to notice this Genjutsu. If they are let through, all we're doing is adding participants and maybe even getting them hurt. What's the point in that?" Two months ago, he would have been called a hypocrite, but in his defense, he had _way _more Chakra than any of these Genin had so it wasn't exactly his fault his skills with Genjutsu were atrocious back then.

Sasuke and Naruto stared each other down for a pregnant moment before the Uchiha uncharacteristically backed down.

"Hn. What then, Dobe?" asked Sasuke, turning to face his team. Naruto shrugged.

"I guess we just bypass this all together and go to the third floor."

"That… honestly doesn't sound like a bad idea," said Sakura, not really wanting to confront the ninja guarding the door. If they succeeded then Naruto would be right – there would be more competition. On the other hand, if they failed, they may not even get into the exam.

_It's like the exam has started before it's even really begun_, thought the pinkette with a frown.

"Fine," replied Sasuke after a moment, "let's go." Slipping past their would-be competition, the three of them went up to the third floor and after finding the correct room, stepped inside. Naruto gave an impressed whistle as he looked around at all the gathered Ninja. There were teams from every village except Iwa.

"Sasuke-kun!"

Naruto could have sworn he heard Sasuke sigh just before Ino tried to embrace the boy. The platinum blonde would have succeeded too if Sakura hadn't blocked her way. The two of them immediately got into an argument, though Naruto noted that neither was using the teasing nicknames they had for each other. He wondered what brought that about.

"So you guys made it to this troublesome thing, huh?" asked Shikamaru as he walked up to Sasuke and Naruto. He greeted Naruto and Sasuke both with a nod and Naruto was happy at least _someone _could still recognize him.

_Maybe this is how Shino feels_, wondered Naruto as he glanced at Shino, Kiba, and Hinata making their way over to them.

"Yeah. That little commotion downstairs was nothing," smirked Naruto.

"Yo, Naruto!" called Kiba. The hooded blonde looked over to him and grinned. "If I couldn't tell people's scents apart I wouldn't have recognized you. What's with the new clothes?"

By now, Ino and Sakura had stopped their bickering and the blonde among the two was listening in as well. She hadn't even known that was Naruto when he walked in, so she just _had _to know what made him change his god awful style. Even Hinata, who loved everything about her blonde crush, was happy that he was no longer wearing the kill-me-now orange jumpsuit. Not that she particularly disliked it or anything, but she knew it stood out far too much for their line of work and she didn't want him to get hurt.

"Well… it got shredded during training. All of them – so did all of my shirts and pants too… Had nothing but shorts left until just recently," replied Naruto, scratching his cheek.

While Hinata tried not to faint from the mental image of a shirtless Naruto she'd just conjured up, the others wondered what he'd gone through to totally annihilate his favorite clothes – and then they wondered who they had to thank for the deed.

"We've all been training harder too," replied Kiba with an almost feral grin, "Don't think you've gotten ahead of us, Naruto. By the time these exams are over, team eight will have won the whole thing," he boasted.

Naruto smirked.

"We'll see about that. I wouldn't get your hopes up though. No one's beating team seven, dattebayo."

"Hey, you guys should keep it down."

Naruto and the other Rookie 9 turned their attention to a silver haired Konoha Genin.

"You're drawing a lot of attention, you know. You probably don't want to do that. Some of these guys are dangerous. Although, I suppose I can understand… I was a rookie myself at one point." Glancing around the room, the Rookie 9 noted that they were certainly getting a decent dose of killing intent (for Genin) from all the teams around them.

"You've taken this test before then, I assume?" inquired Shino.

"Yeah," replied the silver haired Genin. He was looking at the ground now, sounding rather embarrassed. "My seventh time actually. These exams are held twice a year, you see. Oh, my name is Kabuto by the way."

"They're that hard?" asked Ino, sounding a little more worried now.

"Troublesome."

"Yeah, they're pretty tough," Kabuto replied, "I could help you guys out if you want though."

"No offense," said Kiba, "but how are _you_ going to help us? You've failed it seven times."

"None taken," replied Kabuto as he pushed up his glasses and whipped out a deck of cards, "I can help because of these. I pride myself on my information gathering. I've got info on just about everyone in these exams, all right here on these cards. Anyone you want to know about?"

Now he had their attention.

"Sabaku no Gaara," said Naruto. His teammates sent him funny looks, having no idea who he was talking about. At the same time, his eyes found the psychotic red head he'd just mentioned. Gaara looked back at him indifferently, though on the inside his thoughts were filled with different ways he could please his mother with the blonde's blood.

"Who?" asked Sakura.

"This Suna Genin I met yesterday. I'd left my house to go see the Hokage so we could discuss something that day and I ran into him and his team. They're strong and Gaara is… off."

Truthfully, He'd been running around the village to see if anyone below Jounin could even catch a glimpse of him now that he'd gotten so much faster. He ended up meeting Gaara when his brother Kankuro was about to rough up Konohamaru. He recalled something about the boy just feeling wrong, but he couldn't place what it was right away. Not until he felt the worst pain in his stomach he'd ever experienced. He knew it couldn't have been anything aside from the seal acting up, or to be more specific, what was inside of it. He doubted the Kyuubi would stir so violently for anything short of its own kind.

Gaara was a Jinchuriki.

"Know their name already, huh? That makes this easy. Let's see here. Sabaku no Gaara. His teammates are his siblings, Kankuro and Temari. 12 C-ranks, 5 B-ranks, and wow, an A-rank mission. Says here that he's returned from every mission he's ever been on unscathed." The Rookie 9 were left speechless, most of them making a conscious decision not to mess with the three Suna shinobi. As for Naruto, he frowned at this; Gaara would certainly be a hard enemy to face.

"What about Rock Lee and Hyuga Neji of Konoha?" asked Sasuke. This time, it was Naruto's turn to send the boy a look.

"Who're they?" Sasuke gave him a quick explanation of how he'd been challenged by Lee about a week ago. The two of them had ended the match in a draw, though he had held back and he could tell Lee had too. He hadn't fought Neji, but told Naruto that he was supposed to be even stronger than Lee. Naruto, for his part, hadn't been around Sasuke in so long that he couldn't properly gauge whether or not Lee and Neji were any threat to him.

"Here they are. Rock Lee and Hyuga Neji of Konoha. The two of them are on the same team and their teammate is Tenten. They both seem to be very proficient in taijutsu and they are last year's Dead Last and Rookie of the Year respectively. That shouldn't have you taking them lightly though. They've completed 20 D-ranks and 18 C-ranks as well as 1 B-rank."

"Trying to gain information on us, are you, Uchiha?" The members of the Rookie 9 turned to see a stone faced Neji and his team.

"Hn."

"Ah! The beautiful Sakura-san! I presume you are having a most youthful day?" Naruto raised a brow at Lee's antics as Sakura seemed to be backing away from him.

"Uh… yeah, Lee. I guess I am."

"Well," said Kabuto, drawing their attention back to him, "There are plenty of strong teams here from various villages this year, so watch out. There's this team from the new village, Otogakure, but as they've only recently been around, I wouldn't worry about them."

Reacting to Kabuto's words, three Oto shinobi leapt out of the crowd, moving in on him. One of them, who seemed reminiscent of a mummy made the first move to attack – or at least that was the plan. He stopped cold in his tracks, suddenly choking as an orange chain tightened around his neck. Naruto was directly behind him.

"Bad move. Don't take things so seriously."

"Dosu!" shouted one of the other Oto shinobi as he made to raise his hand.

"I wouldn't do that either," said Sasuke as his Kunai gently poked against the Oto-nin's back. Kabuto watched on, impressed. Sasuke was fast, faster than the last time he'd checked up on him as ordered by his master.

_He'll make a fine vessel for Orochimaru-sama… but the other one_, thought Kabuto, trailing off as his eyes drifted over to Naruto. He frowned. _He's faster than Sasuke. I almost didn't see him move. And those chains… they're not the ones wrapped around his arm… Where did he get them? _

"Make one more move and I'll disqualify all of you maggots!" called a new voice from the door as it slammed open. Naruto and Sasuke immediately let the two Oto-nin free and returned to their remaining teammate. The two of them stared each other down, much like they had earlier that morning. Once again, they wanted to see just how far the other had come.

"I'm Morino Ibiki, your proctor for this exam," barked the war-worn man near the door, "Now get up off your lazy asses and follow me outside! The Chunin exams begin now, maggots!"

* * *

><p>Translations:<p>

Orioke no Jutsu – Sexy Jutsu

Otogakure no Sato – Village Hidden in the Sound

Well, that's chapter four. **SPeCTeR-II7 **brought up something I hadn't thought about yet in their review last chapter. As we know, pretty much every other Jinchuriki got some cool power from their Biju (Gaara's sand, Fuu's wings, etc.). Naruto gets Negative emotion sensing of course, but does that seem like enough to you guys? Once it was brought to my attention, I was wondering if Naruto should get like… Scorch Release from Kurama or something, but I'm not quite sure. So, I want to know what you guys think. Share your opinions with me and we'll see what happens. I'll have chapter five up within the next two weeks and it'll be about the first part of the exams. Till then, see you guys.


	5. The First Exam

**AN: **Back with chapter five. It took a bit longer than I expected because… well, I suck with riddles. You'll see why that's relevant soon enough, of course.

I'd like to thank everyone who contributed their ideas about Naruto and any possible powers he may get from Kurama. After carefully considering everything as well as doing a bit of research after something was brought to my attention, I've decided not to add any extra abilities from Kurama that he didn't already receive in canon. I'm doing this because while it seems to be rather popular in the fanon, there's no indication that all Jinchuriki receive regeneration like Naruto does from the Kyuubi. That along with Negative Emotion Sensing and Kurama's special chakra cloak is enough in my opinion, especially because Naruto is already receiving quite a bit thanks to having his parents around.

Anyway, strap in guys. My longest chapter to date is coming your way.

A thanks to **zebzy1** for their awesome work as my beta especially in this chapter. It seriously would have been the biggest hassle without their help.

Now then, let the Chunin Exams begin.

* * *

><p><em><strong>The First Exam<strong>_

Naruto and his team followed Ibiki out of the room much like the rest of the Genin. It took a bit of time getting through the halls of the academy considering the amount of Chunin hopefuls following behind the interrogator, but eventually they all made it outside. They now stood in front of the Academy building once again and some of them briefly wondered why they'd had to go inside in the first place.

"Congratulations on making it this far. I see that the Genjutsu on the second floor weeded out all the unprepared ones," said Ibiki as two Chunin walked out of the academy holding two large bags. They came to a stop just behind Ibiki

_Ah, _thought Sakura, frowning. _So it really was a test before the actual exams..._

"As I said earlier, I'm Morino Ibiki, the proctor for this exam. It's nearly ten now and we've wasted enough time, so let's cut to the chase and get started, shall we?" asked Ibiki.

He signaled for the two Chunin to move forward. They did so, coming to a stop at either of his sides and opened the bags. Ibiki dipped his hand into the bag on his right and pulled out a small scroll.

"On this scroll is a riddle, leading to a location within the village. Should you decipher the message of the riddle and arrive at the correct location a shinobi of Konoha will be waiting for you and they'll give you the location of the next exam. Each of you will receive your own individual scroll and the only way you'll know if your whole team completed this portion of the exam will be when the second portion begins in two days. If even one member of your team is missing once you reach the location of the next exam two days from now go ahead and go home. A full team is needed to move on to the next exam," Ibiki paused here, letting his words sink in.

"You can receive help from others," Ibiki continued, watching the relief on the faces of the Genin, "but, if you still get the location wrong _you and the person who assisted you will be disqualified_. You may think we won't know whether or not anything of the sort occurred, but believe me, _we will_." Ibiki didn't say they couldn't ask people not participating in the exams, but hey, he hadn't said they could either. It wasn't restricted, but he figured if the lot of them couldn't look underneath the underneath then they didn't deserve to pass this part of the exam anyway.

"Last but not least, the shinobi you meet upon deciphering the location on your scroll has the right to test you and see if you're worthy to move on. If you fail their test, whatever it may be, you fail this portion of the exam. Now get up here and grab a scroll, maggots."

* * *

><p>Naruto frowned as he walked through the village, looking down at the riddle on his scroll.<p>

_The beginning is only the start, The past is a form of art, For all those who choose to look to the future, The line of thrones high above is the way to start._

"What the hell does this even mean?" groaned Naruto. He had gotten smarter, yes. He could now understand things better thanks to his father's rigorous teachings, but Naruto knew his weaknesses and this was one of them. Puzzles, riddles… those kinds of things totally went over his head. He was just bad at solving them.

After hearing the explanation from the test, he'd hoped to get some help from his team, but that had been a bust. Sakura had already left; apparently, she'd deciphered her riddle immediately. As for Sasuke, he'd just glared and told him,

"I'm not going to be disqualified just because you can't figure something out."

Naruto, for his part, wondered if Sasuke realized that he'd get disqualified whether he'd helped the blonde or not. If Naruto couldn't figure it out on his own and failed it would have ended the same as if they'd both gotten it wrong and failed.

Naruto looked down at the scroll once more – and groaned immediately as he neared Ichiraku. He hadn't been there in a few weeks and now he could really use some cheering up.

"Who knows," mumbled the young Namikaze, "maybe some Ramen will give me an idea…"

"Welcome, Naruto!" called Teuchi as Naruto entered his favorite establishment. The ramen chef was already working on Naruto's usual as the blonde sat down.

"Yeah…" replied Naruto half-heartedly, Ayame noticed this.

"What's wrong?" she asked, a slight frown on her face. Naruto looked at her and sighed before relating his plight to her and her father.

"Ah, so you can't figure out the little riddle and no one will help you, huh?" asked Teuchi as he put a bowl down in front of Naruto.

_Thinking about the riddle can wait… Ramen time can't!_

"Itadakimasu!" The Genin's mood brightened as he grabbed the chopsticks and dug in.

* * *

><p>Across the street, peeking from an alley way was Konoha's shyest (possibly) resident, Hyuga Hinata. She'd been watching been stalk – watching her blonde crush ever since the riddles had been distributed. Hinata wasn't happy with the way Sasuke had shot Naruto down and now she wanted nothing more than to help him solve his riddle. There was only one problem – she was too nervous to approach him.<p>

It was no secret (to anyone but Naruto) how Hinata felt about the boy, but after years of being put down by her father and some of the other main branch Hyuga's, Hinata was severely lacking in self esteem. She was an amazingly kind, caring girl, but her clan saw her personality as a weakness. The fact that she'd never beaten her little sister, Hanabi (because she couldn't stop herself from pulling her punches) in a spar didn't help her case either. Thanks to her family, she'd never been able to properly move forward and try and grasp what she's wanted.

But at this moment, as she remembered the words on her own scroll, she vowed she'd take this step forward. As small as she may have thought it was, she promised herself that she would talk to Naruto. She _would _help him.

"S-strength can be p-presented in many f-forms," Hinata reminded herself, remembering the part of her riddle that meant the most to her, "I – I can… I will do this."

Gathering every last ounce of her courage, Hinata took a deep breath and left the alley, making her way towards Ichiraku Ramen and more importantly, towards Naruto.

* * *

><p>Naruto moved on to his third bowl of Ramen, all his focus trained solely on the deliciousness before him. Now that his parents were in his life, they refused to let him eat Ramen every single day for every single meal. He complained about not at least being able to have it every day, even if he couldn't have it every meal, but his parents had denied him that. They explained that while Ramen was most certainly the food of the Gods, it wasn't good for him to eat it as much as he did. If he wanted to grow properly he'd need to have a more diverse diet. He didn't like the idea at first, but considering how amazing his mother's cooking was, that did not last very long.<p>

So focused on his food, Naruto hadn't noticed the presence coming up behind him, nor did he hear Teuchi greeting someone. No, Naruto didn't notice a thing until his name was called.

"N-naruto-kun…?"

As the young blonde Genin slurped up the last of his third bowl, he turned around. He met eyes with Hinata and the shy girl would have been content to just stare into those blue pools of his, but she knew she couldn't She had to try and help her crush.

"Yes?" he asked after he'd finished chewing. His mother and father had gone over manners with him a bit and they'd made it clear what he should and shouldn't do in front of a girl. Talking with a mouth fool of food had been on the list of what shouldn't be done. As he waited for Hinata to continue, Naruto wondered what she'd called out to him for. It just didn't make sense. She'd never really talked to him before, so why now? What was so important?

Taking a seat next to her crush as his fourth bowl was placed in front of him, Hinata took another deep breath to try to calm her raging nerves. While she did that, Naruto began to eat again, noticeably slower; his parents had told him girls didn't like watching anyone eat like a pig.

To Naruto it seemed as though Hinata was quite sick. Every time he had met the girl she'd ended up fainting. Now though, she seemed to be feeling better. Although she was still fairly red in the cheeks, she hadn't fainted yet. Usually she'd pass out within a few moments of being around him, but right now she was still conscious at least. She may have just been sitting there lost in thought, but it was better than her fainting.

_Her condition has gotten better then. That's good_, thought the blonde, _maybe she and I could be friends now or something… if she wants to be. I don't even mind if she is just a little weird. Besides, I'm a Jinchuriki, after all. Doesn't get much weirder than that._

After a few moments longer, Hinata finally spoke up.

"How's are t-things going for you with the e-exam?"

Naruto's previously pleasant expression faltered.

"Not so great," he replied, sighing, "I'm bad with riddles and stuff…" Hinata nodded, having already known that.

"Yes… I s-saw you asking Sasuke for help e-earlier."

"Yeah," Naruto responded, slurping up some more noodles soon after, "but Sasuke was being – well – Sasuke. The Teme didn't even consider helping me," he added with a grumble after swallowing.

"W-what's your riddle, Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata, pushing her two index fingers together. Naruto raised his brow, taking a moment to wonder why she'd want to see it. It didn't last long though thinking and ramen time didn't usually mix with him. Handing her his scroll he finished his fourth bowl and moved on to his fifth as she read.

"D-do you," started Hinata, grabbing the boy's attention as he gulped down some more ramen. "Do you want m-me to help?" Naruto stared at her, almost dropping his chopsticks in the process.

_She's offering? Doesn't she care about the consequences?_ Wondered Naruto.

A few seconds passed as her blonde crush thought, his eyes never leaving her. Hinata was starting to become worried. All the confidence she'd built up for this moment was beginning to fade as he continued to stare.

_He doesn't want my help, does he? He must think I'll get him disqualified… I'm such a failure…_

Just a moment longer passed before Naruto spoke up.

"Are you sure…? What if I still can't figure it out? I don't want you to fail because of me, Hinata."

The Hyuga heiress stared at him now, her eyes wide.

_Naruto-kun didn't think I'd be the one to drag him down? _

Hinata immediately calmed herself. Naruto wasn't thinking that she would bring him down, in fact he'd seemed to be more worried about her than himself. Hinata felt the butterflies in her stomach at the mere thought of him being protective of her. It made her feel good and brought up memories of their first meeting. He'd saved her and maybe now she could return the favor, even if it was only a little.

"I'm s-sure, Naruto-kun. Besides, with the t-two of us, I'm sure we can f-figure it out."

Naruto grinned at her, nodding.

"Thanks, Hinata." He said, pulling her into a hug that made the heiress' head swim in the best way.

"Eep!"

Following the noise from Hinata, Naruto felt her body go limp in his arms. Concerned, he pulled her away from him to see that she'd fainted again.

"Oh crap! Hinata! Hinata? Are you okay?!"

"Calm down Naruto," called Ayame, smirking. She'd watched the whole scene play out and could see plain as day how Hinata felt about her young friend. Considering how shy the girl was, she figured something like this might have happened.

"She'll be fine if you let her rest. Tell you what, how about you let her rest her head on your shoulder while you finish eating? It'll be more comfortable for her. She'll appreciate when she wakes up. I promise."

"Are you sure, Ayame-neechan?" asked Naruto, concerned.

"I'm positive. Trust me."

Naruto trusted Ayame; she'd never lied to him before. With that in mind, he nodded and positioned the young Hyuga so her head was resting on his shoulder. Once she was comfortable, Naruto wondered why she was being so nice. Now that he thought about it, she'd never been mean to him in the Academy, ever. Still, that didn't explain why she would risk her chances – her team's chances to move on to the second exam. Naruto thought about it, but he already had too much on his mind as is. Putting it to the back of his mind, he decided he'd figure her out later Right now, all he knew was that he found Hinata to be a nice girl and even though he hadn't exactly realized it yet himself, he found her stutter to be kind of cute.

Carefully, Naruto continued to eat his ramen, intent on not waking the unconscious Hyuga on his shoulder.

* * *

><p>Kushina closed the door to the Hokage's office behind her. As she made her way down the hall she thought about the discussion she'd just had with her husband. Today, Minato had become Hokage again. Though his existence was still a high ranking secret he'd taken over for the Sandaime in every aspect except for anything that had to do with appearing in public. Neither of them felt that right now was the appropriate time to let his existence be known to the general population and if Kushina was honest, she still didn't think she or her husband were ready to face them just yet.<p>

They needed just a few more days to prepare for his reveal. Once that was done they would rip the village a new one. Aside for the talk of his becoming the Hokage once again, the other topic of discussion was Danzo. The treacherous bastard had managed to escape the village and despite their best efforts, they hadn't found any of his agents yet. His Root base had been discovered about a week after the two of them had escaped his clutches, but once they'd disabled the Fuinjutsu protecting the place they didn't find anyone there.

That was a problem.

Danzo's Root Anbu had probably blended into their own by now; it was like trying to find a needle in a needle stack. There were more Anbu than there seemed and aside from that, there was the possibility that whomever Danzo left in charge would be smart. Smart enough to only mix in a select few Root operatives into the Anbu and have the others hidden in some secret location outside of the village.

Kushina would have joined Anbu in an effort to find Danzo's emotionless little pets, but she knew it wouldn't work. Her hair was far too noticeable and she wasn't naïve enough to believe the Konoha Anbu couldn't see through a henge. If she tried anything like that, she'd just end up in a fight.

She had considered masking her identity with a Fuinjutsu – she certainly had the perfect one, in fact she was already using it – but she didn't know if any Root operatives were proficient in the art and while they would probably not be able to see through her Fuinjutsu, they would at least be able to see some of the signs. Aside from that, the Fuinjutsu she was currently using to keep her identity under wraps was an Uzumaki Fuinjutsu. They were easy to identify due to the swirl in all of them, so she was sure Danzo's pets would know her identity if they could notice that she was using Fuinjutsu at all.

Sighing, she took her mind off the more troubling things going on in the village and focused on getting to Ichiraku. She wanted to try to catch a bite to eat before she had to administer a test to whatever Chunin hopeful ended up at her location.

* * *

><p>Naruto had just finished his eleventh bowl of ramen as he felt Hinata begin to stir. Having decided beforehand that he would leave when she woke up, he pulled out Gama-chan and paid for his meal. Hinata gave a small groan next as her eyes fluttered open. She rubbed them, wondering where she was and how she'd fainted.<p>

It all came back to her at the same time Naruto spoke up.

"Glad you're awake. You had me worried there, Hinata."

Hinata sputtered.

"I-I'm sorry, N-naruto-kun." Naruto quirked an eyebrow, frowning.

"For what? You didn't do anything wrong."

"It's n-nothing… A-are you ready to go?"

Naruto nodded and the two of them left his favorite Ramen shop, missing his mother's arrival by mere minutes. When she got there, Kushina got quite the lunch time story from Teuchi and Ayame. The two of them found out about Minato and Kushina being alive a few weeks after their return. When they saw Naruto's parents walking up with him they'd freaked out and immediately wondered why no one else was making a big deal out of the Yondaime and his wife being alive.

Their explanation was that they'd used some Fuinjutsu. Apparently, aside from a few key people whom they'd weaved into the seal matrix, anyone who looked at them just saw some average people. The Fuinjutsu wouldn't have worked all that well on anyone proficient in them, but those would only be shinobi and they could easily have them sworn to secrecy if they noticed.

As Kushina continued to listen to Ayame go on about her son and the Hyuga heiress, Naruto and Hinata were walking around the village, discussing his riddle.

"I don't get this thing at all," sighed Naruto.

"Well, let's b-break it down, Naruto-kun. The first s-significant clue is this line," said Hinata, pointing to the second line in his riddle.

"'The past is a form of art.' Why's that so important?"

"Because it's hinting at s-something. If you put it together w-with the l-last line, 'The line of thrones h-high above is the way to s-start,' then I think we will figure out where y-you need to go, Naruto-kun," Hinata replied, being patient with her blonde crush.

She didn't fault him for not getting it. If he was bad with riddles and the like then he was bad with riddles; there was nothing wrong with that. She'd be no different from her family and their view of her skills as a shinobi if just this little bit of seeing the blonde struggle could possibly make her frustrated with him.

"I'm not really into art and stuff…" Naruto said, trailing off, "The only art I've ever really seen in the village is the Hokage Monument," he added as he continued walking.

Though her crush hadn't realized the significance of what he'd just said, Hinata sure did. Grabbing his sleeve to make him stop, Hinata replied.

"That's it, Naruto-kun," she said excitedly, managing not to stutter, "The Hokage Monument. The past Hokage were t-turned into a monument. That makes them a-art. They look over the v-village from high above too."

"Are you sure?" he asked. Hinata nodded, a small smile playing at her lips. Naruto grinned in reply.

"Thanks Hinata! You're the best! I'm definitely going to make this up to you. Do you need help with your riddle? I'm not nearly as good as you, but maybe I can help?"

Hinata shook her head.

"No, it's okay. I al-already solved mine," she replied. Naruto nodded, too excited to really think about what she was saying.

"Okay. I'm still going to pay you back for this though, ttebayo! What's your favorite food? Maybe I can treat you to some or something?" asked the blonde, oblivious to what this could imply. Hinata's face heated up – she was certainly not oblivious.

"C-c-cinnamon b-buns," stuttered Hinata.

Naruto nodded, filing that away for later.

"Awesome. I'll definitely treat you to some after all this is over then. See you Hinata! I've got a test to pass!" With that, Naruto vanished in a shunshin, catching the shy heiress off guard. Since when had her crush learned that?

* * *

><p>Around the same time Hinata had first approached Naruto, Sakura had just stopped at her house for some tea. She needed to calm down. She looked down at her riddle scroll, rereading it aloud.<p>

"Life should be cherished, For without it everyone should perish, A place where people rest, A place where the wounded are led." Sakura knew where she needed to go to complete this part of the exam. It was kind of obvious in her opinion. Where else could this riddle be hinting at aside from the hospital? She had planned to just go there and get it all over with, but as she walked through the village, her mind wandered onto the second test she'd be presented with once she got there.

What if she had to fight? Sakura was worried now. She'd never really had to fight without her team before and despite how much she'd improved her skills thanks to the past two months in Kakashi's training from the depths of hell, she was afraid she wouldn't be good enough. She didn't want to hold her team back and right now she knew that's all she was doing.

Sakura wanted to impress Sasuke too; that was a large reason as to why she'd been training so much harder the past two months, but Kakashi had made it clear that her obsession could get someone killed. When she thought about it like that, she realized she needed to do this for the team too. Still, she felt weak. She thought she'd gotten better over the past two months, but earlier when those Oto-nin had made a move on Kabuto she'd barely seen Sasuke move to stop the spiky haired one and as for Naruto, she hadn't seen him move at all.

Her teammates were still so far ahead of her and she was beginning to wonder how she could even hope to catch up. She'd already come to the conclusion that she'd probably never be as fast as the two of them; while she wasn't particularly slow, she'd never been one of the fastest kunoichi in her class. No, Sakura was smart and Kakashi said her blows held some weight behind them. Aside from that, her reserves were relatively small which would make her good for Genjutsu.

Kurenai-Sensei had helped her a great deal with that, but Sakura didn't think it was enough. She'd need more at her disposal if she wanted to catch up to her team and impress Sasuke. She needed something more. But what? What did her team need that they didn't already have?

Sakura looked down at her scroll again, reading it again for the fifth time that day. As her eyes moved over the words, everything seemed to click into place. Finishing off her tea, Sakura headed for the door. She needed to get to the hospital and at least try to pass this test. After that, she would be heading to the library. She doubted she could get much done in a day or two, but she had some research and training to do.

* * *

><p>At around the same time Sakura had set out to go to the hospital, Sasuke was on the way to his location. It hadn't taken him long to figure out where he needed to go either, but he'd wanted to be prepared for anything when he got there so he'd stopped by his home to stock up on equipment. As he walked his mind went to his riddle.<p>

_It is said that the most innocent of forms is that of a child, They have the purest of smiles, Children gather at grounds to play, They learn to live, laugh, and love from one another, Here on these playgrounds what will they discover?_

Sasuke didn't like his riddle. It had been too childish in his opinion. That was only the outer most shell though, the first and most fickle reason as to why he disliked it. The truth was that he was displeased with his riddle because it did something to him.

It reminded the Uchiha of his childhood.

And he hated the reminder more than anything.

Sasuke had a happy childhood. Sasuke's loved his father, even though the man had been rather cold and cared more for Itachi. That hadn't stopped him from loving his dad though. There were times when his father showed some of his softer side. It wasn't often, but it occurred and Sasuke cherished those moments. His mother was a much warmer person. She loved her sons with all her heart and she'd do anything for them.

Sasuke remembered how much he loved talking to his mother. She'd always have interesting stories to tell him about her days as a shinobi. The most interesting ones always seemed to involve a red haired girl whom was supposed to have been his godmother. He remembered when he'd asked why he'd never met her and his mother got a sad look in her eyes, saying that she had to go far away. Sasuke hadn't understood at the time, but he did now. His godmother had died.

Sasuke wondered what it would have been like if she'd have lived. Would he actually have someone he could consider family? Or would Itachi have killed her too? He wouldn't have put it past him.

Sasuke's thoughts moved on, thinking about his riddle once more, picking it apart. The riddle said children had the purest of smiles – and he wondered if that was true. He hadn't smiled genuinely in years; he didn't see anything in his life to be happy about. He was angry. He hated. More than anything though, he was alone. Now that he was older, he wanted to have other people around him – he wanted to have what he'd pushed away as a child.

The riddle had said children learned to live, laugh, and love from each other. When he was younger, looking at all the other children play in the park as he trailed behind his father, he'd never considered playing with them. His father had wanted him to get stronger and that meant more to him than playing with the other kids. He thought back to it now though, wondering if he should have. Could he have endured the loss of his clan if he'd had friends? He wasn't sure and now – now it was too late to find out.

Sasuke thought back to his childhood and in the parts of his heart that he'd locked away. In the parts of his heart that he'd shunned into silence, he wondered if he'd be any different if he'd taken a chance to truly experience his child hood. He wanted to now. He wanted to laugh, wanted his godmother that he'd never met, he wanted friends, and more than anything he wanted to stop being so lonely.

He thought to Naruto, knowing that somehow – someway… he knew that he understood his pain, even if only a little. His blonde teammate had known loneliness. He'd had no friends either. He'd had no family. He'd had no love. He knew Naruto could understand him and Sasuke figured that if he'd just reach out then befriending Naruto would be his first step to reclaiming the things he didn't have in his child hood.

Sasuke wanted to do all these things, but he couldn't. He was scared – scared that if he reached out, his only purpose left in life would be taken away. No, Sasuke couldn't have the things of his childhood. It was too late for that. He had too much anger. He had too much hatred. He was an avenger and before he could even consider things like friendship, he thought he'd have to rid the darkness in his heart.

Yes, Sasuke knew it was too late for him now. He was already falling into the darkness. He knew – but he didn't care. He had too much to accomplish there. Sasuke knew he was falling – and he was okay with it.

Sasuke Uchiha was an avenger; he had to kill the man who massacred his clan. He had to kill his brother. He _needed_ to be the one to put Itachi to death.

And until Itachi was dead at his feet, the young Uchiha didn't see himself approaching the light again.

* * *

><p>Hinata looked down at her scroll again, reading it.<p>

_There are many hidden abilities, Everyone has the capabilities, Strength can be presented in many forms, It is not just meant for the leader of people, Or the place where they are based._

Hinata read the lines again, and again, and again. She didn't know where her riddle was hinting at. Hinata had lied to Naruto. She wouldn't have minded the help he'd offered, but if they'd gotten it wrong she didn't want him to fail because of her. No, that would _absolutely not do_. Hinata wanted _him _to succeed more than herself.

Hinata was relieved Naruto had been too excited to realize her earlier lie. There was no way she could have already finished the test. Not much time had passed since the distribution of the scrolls and her meeting him at Ichiraku – 20 minutes at best. She wouldn't have been able to decipher her scroll, get to the location, take whatever second test was waiting for her there, and then make it back to him. It just wasn't possible unless she'd gotten something absurdly easy.

And she hadn't.

Sighing, the young Hyuga turned around, intending to make her way back to her home. She had two days to figure the riddle out, so she figured she could do a bit of sparring, relax a little, and then sleep on it. That was her plan right up until she bumped into someone. She'd been too lost in thought.

"I'm s-s-sorry," said Hinata, bowing. She hadn't looked up yet, slightly afraid of doing so. She hoped she hadn't made who she bumped into too angry.

"It's okay. No harm done."

Hinata looked up now, meeting eyes with an older brunette woman. Something about her was… off. Hinata found her to be average, but something about that just didn't seem right. As she continued to look at her it almost seemed like the woman's face was blurring. Hinata wanted to activate her Byakugan, but she was sure that would seem rude. Still, the woman seemed a bit suspicious to her, so she would wait until the woman turned around before she tried anything.

"Really?" asked Hinata.

"Yeah, it's fine. You don't look too happy though, something wrong?"

"Well…" started the heiress, trailing off as she consider her answer. Could she even bring this up with anyone not part of the test? Now that she thought about it, the proctor hadn't said anything about being restricted from asking non participants. If she thought about it, this would be a perfect way to get a fresh perspective on her riddle and not worry about getting any other participants in the exams failed if they were wrong.

Figuring it wouldn't do any harm, Hinata went ahead and told her what was wrong. The woman nodded, understanding the problem.

"Mind if I take a look at it? Maybe I can help?" asked the woman. Hinata gave a small smile in reply, handing the brunette her scroll. The brunette looked over the riddle, humming in thought for a moment before giving it back to the young Hyuga.

"I think I get it," she said.

"You d-do?" asked Hinata. The brunette nodded, smiling.

"I don't think the first part is what's important… well, I won't say that. You should take those words to heart – but the second part of the riddle hints at where you need to go more than the talk of strength and such. It says that strength isn't just for the leader of the people or where that leader is based, right?" Hinata nodded at this.

"Well, think about it. The Hokage leads this village. What would you consider his base?"

Hinata's brows furrowed for only a second before her eyes widened.

"The Hokage Tower." The brunette nodded.

"There you go! Better hurry over there."

"Thank you v-very much," said Hinata, bowing once more.

"No big deal, I'm glad I could help, ttebane. I better be going now though, I've got to get home and cook. My son will probably be back soon."

With that, the brunette began to walk away. Hinata, though thankful for the woman's help, did not let that alleviate her earlier suspicions. Activating her Byakugan, Hinata examined the brunette and her eyes narrowed as she caught something concerning. She had Fuinjutsu written on her shoulder, an odd swirl pattern making up the center of it.

Deactivating her Byakugan, Hinata hurried on her way. She needed to go to the Hokage Tower anyway. Now she just had more to do there than complete her test. She hurried along until something the woman had said made her stop in her tracks.

"Ttebane…?"

Hinata's face scrunched up in thought. She'd definitely heard a phrase similar to that before. In fact, there was only one person in the village who said anything of the sort. The Hyuga heiress picked up her pace, now more determined to talk to the Hokage than ever. She hoped he would have some insight into the woman she'd met.

* * *

><p>As Hinata made her way to the Hokage Tower, Naruto arrived at the top of the Hokage monument. Initially, he didn't see anyone as he looked around. As he made his way to his father's head, he worried that he and Hinata had been wrong. He wasn't too concerned about himself, but he didn't want to be the reason his team and Hinata's team failed. Just as Naruto was about to turn and leave someone called out to him.<p>

"You are here for the Chunin Exams, I assume?"

Naruto turned fully now, looking into the tree line. Sitting on one of the branches was an older woman, probably in her twenties. She had waist-length purple hair and brown eyes. Her lips were red from the lipstick she wore. She wore the usual Anbu clothing and there was a sword on her back. Naruto smiled, hoping he could get a sword fight out of this.

"Yeah," he replied, walking towards her, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I guess you're here to give me some test?"

"Yes," said the woman as she jumped from the tree, landing gracefully. "I am Uzuki Yugao. I've heard of you, Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto tensed, his eyes narrowing.

"How do you know about that…?" asked the blonde, ready to go on the attack if need be. Usually, it wasn't good when strangers had info on you that they shouldn't possibly know.

Yugao giggled.

"No worries. I'm Anbu, part of your father's personal guard actually. I would be guarding him right now, but I was relieved of my duty for the duration of the first exam. Your Sensei, Kakashi, is filling in for me."

"Is that so?" asked Naruto, still a little suspicious.

"Yes, it is," replied Yugao, "I'm kind of glad I ended up with you. Your mother's expertise in Kenjutsu is inspiring and I'd always wanted a chance to have a duel with her," added Yugao as she drew her katana, taking her stance.

"Sorry I'm not my mother," replied Naruto as an Uzumaki seal appeared on the palm of his right hand. As if appearing from beneath the surface of water, the hilt of a katana rose out of his palm. Grabbing hold if it with his left hand, he pulled and soon his own katana was out in the open.

"Hopefully, I can give you a good fight though." Yugao smirked at this.

"Defeat me and you move on to the second exam." Naruto nodded and took up his own stance. Yugao observed him. Both arms were resting at his sides, his katana not even in a position that could cut her at the moment. Most people would laugh at this, but Yugao knew better. This was the initial stance of the Uzumaki Clan's famed Kenjutsu style, the Senpuu no Mai.

"That stance… it's the 'Eye of the Storm.' You really know Senpuu no Mai Ryuu then, huh?" Naruto smirked.

Not wasting any more time, Yugao's arm moved. Carving out a perfect circle in front of her, her blade followed – and then she was off.

"Oborozukiyo."

Rushing forward in a blur of speed that Naruto barely followed, Yugao neared him. Naruto didn't need to see her to know she was attacking though, so he focused. Reacting the minute he felt danger, Naruto's arm moved in a blur of speed of his own, intercepting Yugao's strike. Yugao made to back away, but Naruto wasn't having that. Pressing forward, Naruto made a downward slash.

Dodging to her left, Yugao avoided his attack – or so she thought. Not even a second after the strike she raised her katana, blocking the steel of Naruto's blade. Twisting around, she kicked the blonde away before dashing forward, a horizontal slice already making its way towards the boys midsection. Naruto parried the blow and replied to it with an upward strike. Yugao blocked. And then she blocked again. And again.

"Makaze," called Naruto.

Soon Yugao found herself blocking the upward slashes at a much more rapid pace and right when she thought there was nothing left her eyes were drawn above her and she saw his blade flying down towards her. Reacting quickly, she parried the first blow and jumped back, dodging the dozens of blows that followed. Yugao glanced at the ground where she once stood and took note of the dozens upon dozens of slash marks that littered it. Naruto had caused so much damage in the span of only a few seconds.

"I had heard stories of what practitioners of the Senpuu no Mai were capable of, but I did not think it all to be true," said Yugao.

"Yeah," grinned Naruto, his arms dropping back down to his sides, "It's awesome right? It took me a while to get my speed at a level to do even this much though. I can still only get about twenty strikes in with my Makaze. Mom can get in over forty," he ranted, boasting about his mother's skills.

Yugao nodded, filing away the number of attacks he was currently capable of in case he used the technique again. She also made a mental note to let the Yondaime know that he should make sure Naruto knows not to talk too much in regards to what skills he had while in battle. Despite his little mistake, Yugao accepted that the boy was already a decent swordsman in his clan's Kenjutsu style. She'd heard stories of it and how dangerous it was. Apparently, the style focused on multiple, devastatingly fast strikes. The initial stance, known as Eye of the Storm was nothing but a ploy to draw opponents in. The enemy would think the user to be vulnerable, when in fact, there were little to no openings.

"Well then, let us begin round two," said Yugao, dashing forward once more.

* * *

><p>Hinata made her way up the steps, before opening the door to the Hokage Tower. Stepping inside she began to walk down the hall, noticing how empty it was. That was odd to her, it wasn't often that there was a lack of people in the building.<p>

"You're here for the exams, right?" Turning around, looking back towards the door, Hinata searched for the person who'd just spoken to her. She saw no one and activated her Byakugan on reflex. Directly behind her was a red haired Anbu.

_She's fast_, thought Hinata as she turned to face the Anbu.

"Yes, I a-am." Byakugan still active, Hinata observed the red head before her, but when her eyes fell upon a seal on her shoulder that she was positive she'd seen earlier she nearly gasped.

"Y-you're the lady who helped me earlier," Hinata realized. Beneath her mask, Kushina smiled. She hadn't expected the girl to identify her, but it seemed she was pretty perceptive. She could only assume the young Hyuga had thought something about her was suspicious and activated her Byakugan to try to discover what that was as they parted ways.

_Oh, she will make a fine shinobi._

"Yeah, Who'd have thought I'd end up giving a helping hand to the girl I'd need to test, right? Now then, what's your name?" asked Kushina despite the fact she already knew who the girl was. Her son was good at describing his friends and even if he wasn't, Kushina could connect the dots simply by matching her age with her gender, unmarked forehead, her personality, and her eyes. It was obvious she was a child of the main branch, but she didn't act as stuck up as usual main branch Hyuga.

There's no way she could be anyone else other than Hinata.

"I'm Hy-Hyuga Hinata."

"Well nice to meet you. Name's Kushina. So, I'll cut to the chase here. Why do you want to be a Chunin? Why is that important to you? Better make your answer good, kid. I'm only giving you one chance."

Hinata remained quiet, pushing her index fingers together as she thought. Once again, her mind drifted to her riddle.

"My t-team – my friends… I want to p-protect all of them. I have trained hard to be able t-to stand by them until now. Becoming a Chunin w-would prove something, n-not to others… but to myself. Passing these exams would m-mean that I'm not a b-burden. Becoming a Chunin would mean that all of t-this wasn't a waste; it would mean I'm n-not a f-failure. I-if I can do this, then I k-know I can p-protect everyone precious to me."

Silence settled between them. Hinata grew nervous as it dragged on, wondering if she'd said something wrong. As she continued to worry, Kushina hummed, drawing the shy girl's attention.

Smirking beneath her mask, Kushina spoke.

"You know what? That's a strong response, kid. We could use people like you… Good answer, Hinata. You pass."

Hinata's face lit up in joy.

* * *

><p>Sakura walked into the hospital, taking a deep breath as she neared the front desk. Gathering her courage, she spoke up.<p>

"Excuse me… um…" The woman at the front desk looked up at Sakura briefly before her eyes came back down to the paperwork in front of her. She had a short crop of smooth black hair and equally black eyes.

"Yes?" she asked. Sakura noted that she sounded bored.

"I'm here for the Chunin Exams."

The woman looked up at her, eyes narrowing now that she knew why the girl was here. The medic-nin analyzed Sakura as the pinkette waited patiently. The medic-nin's scrutiny went on for a few moments more before her eyes dropped back to her papers.

"You fail."

Sakura's eyes widened.

"What?! Why? Did I come to the wrong place somehow?" Sakura couldn't believe that. She was a smart girl and she'd never had problems with riddles and the sort. She knew she'd come to the right place.

"No, you've come to the right place. I'm just not going to pass you," she replied.

"Wha – but you haven't even tested me yet!" Sakura argued, heart pounding as she realized how this could end.

"Don't need to," replied the medic-nin, "I know your type just by looking at you. You've never really had to work a day in your life, have you? You've started trying a bit harder lately, but when you hit a real roadblock you'll give up. That's not Chunin material." Sakura frowned, her fists clenching.

"You don't know me as well as you think," seethed the pinkette, "I admit that I haven't been giving it my best, but I can assure you one thing. Whatever my past may be, I'm not giving up now." The woman looked up at her again, meeting her eyes. There was a fire behind them.

"You may die."

"I'm a shinobi. I understand it's a possibility."

"And if you get your teammates killed too?" asked the medic-nin.

Sakura's mind drifted back to her memories in Wave. She'd been useless there and if the enemy had thought to use her as a hostage or something she didn't t doubt that her teammates may have died. She didn't want that to happen again.

"That's why I'm training harder… I don't want that to happen. I… want to try to be a medic-nin too… that way I can help them…" The woman looked Sakura up and down before humming again.

"I see… Come back here tomorrow," said the medic-nin, "Be here at six in the morning. If you're late, I'll fail you. I'll have decided whether you passed or not then. Oh, and by the way. I'm Oyone."

"Sakura." Nodding, Oyone sent her on her way.

Sakura frowned, but decided to go ahead and make her way to the library. She hoped that studying up on medical Ninjutsu would take her mind off the test.

* * *

><p>Sasuke frowned as he looked around the park, not seeing anyone that looked like they might be a shinobi. He doubted he'd come to the wrong place; there really wasn't any other location in the village that fit his riddle as well as the park. Yet here he was, all alone.<p>

Well, not totally alone.

There were more people in the park than just Sasuke. Glancing to his left the Uchiha could see some children playing. He noted that they seemed to be enjoying themselves and once again, his mind drifted to his time as a child. Having effectively zoned-out, the young avenger didn't notice one of the children approaching him until he felt a tug on his sleeve.

With a blink and a shift of his eyes, Sasuke was now staring down a young girl. He almost glared, but managed to keep the look off his face in the presence of a child.

"What?" he asked. Even if he wasn't glaring he couldn't exactly avoid sounding annoyed.

"A-are you a shinobi?" the girl asked, stuttering.

Sasuke nodded, wondering why she cared. Shouldn't she have been playing with her friends or something? Why bother him?

"You're here for the exam thingy…?"

Now she had Sasuke's attention.

"Yeah. Why do you know about it?"

"This lady shinobi told us that when another ninja came by here we should tell them to play with us." Sasuke stared at the little girl, a scowl slowly making its way onto his face.

"And that's how I pass the exam?" The little girl shrugged cutely.

"I dunno."

Was this a joke? He felt like he was getting a D-rank. Shouldn't he have been passed those already? He contemplated telling the little girl to get lost. Playing with children was beneath him now. He was a shinobi. Why should he need to play with some kids?

Was he really supposed to play with these kids? Or was this a ploy? Was this just a distraction and in truth he was supposed to continue waiting? If he thought about it in terms of a mission, the children could be a form of misinformation meant to distract him from the task at hand. But then if they weren't…

Sasuke sighed and in a rare moment he decided to do something he did not often allow to occur.

Uchiha Sasuke took a leap of faith.

Grunting, Sasuke agreed to play with the girl and her friends. He and the children played on the swings, on the jungle gym, and to his horror, he found himself playing Ninja. In his head he groaned, feeling that he was now no better than Naruto.

After an hour of enduring the children and their games the little girl from earlier ran up to him, beaming. As she handed him a paper stating the location of the second exam and that he'd passed this one, Sasuke sighed in relief.

"Thank you for playing with us," said the child. Sasuke looked down at her, still somewhat scowling before he simply grunted. As he walked away, he wondered if he'd have been like that as a child if things had been different. Thinking it over, he decided that he wouldn't have minded being able to play like that.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, life wasn't very fair.

Up in a high tree that over looked the park, a lone kunoichi observed the Uchiha as he left. He hadn't looked particularly happy as he played with the kids, but she knew who he was and hadn't expected a smile or anything in the first place. He'd played with the children though – and that's all that mattered.

"It seems that even he still has a bit of humanity in him," said the kunoichi, "A shinobi that doesn't know when to relax or how to feel anything doesn't deserve to be in the field… and we certainly don't need any Chunin who aren't capable of showing kindness. The kid did alright I guess." Her decision made, the kunoichi shunshined away.

* * *

><p>Naruto jumped away from Yugao, gripping his sword as he panted. He had small cuts along his clothing – as for her she only had one. He knew that in a pure battle of swordplay he was no match for her, but after two months of practice he wanted to see how far his skills had come. He knew now that he still had a long way to go. Resolved not to lose, Naruto decided that it was time to pull out all the stops. He was taking on an Anbu and now that he'd seen where he stood in Kenjutsu he knew he'd need to go all out to beat her.<p>

"You are good," said Yugao, "yours skills with the blade are mid Chunin level at the least. It's a shame though. If that is all you are capable of, then this exam is over. You fail."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"What? No way! I haven't even pulled out all the stops yet!"

"You should have considered that earlier. Sometimes you can't afford to hold back. Better luck next year," replied Yugao, turning away to leave as she sheathed her sword.

"Hey! Wait! I've gotta pass this!" Yugao looked back at him from over her shoulder.

"Really?" she asked, "Why?"

"There are too many people I don't want to disappoint… I can't fail here." Yugao smiled.

"I see… I'll give you another chance then."

"Really?" inquired Naruto excitedly.

"Yes," replied Yugao, "but this is an unusual circumstance. I'm not going to give you another chance after this, Naruto. Furthermore, if you fail here, I'll make sure you'll never be able to take the Chunin exams again. I like your courage, but this village doesn't need a Chunin who uses battles as more of a way to test themselves than actually trying to carry out their mission. Still want to try coming at me again?"

Naruto frowned, realizing that if he failed this time then _that was it_. Could he risk his team's chances like that? Would they even suffer the same consequences as him for his actions? He didn't know – but he didn't think h could back down. He never gave up. It wasn't in him. Besides, if this were a mission, would he even be able to throw in the towel? He shook his head. He knew the answer to that already.

"Let's go." Naruto narrowed his eyes into a glare and prepared to lunge at her when Yugao held up her hand.

"You choose to fight me again?"

Naruto nodded, his determination showing through.

"I see… in that case, you pass."

"What…?" Yugao smiled at the dumbstruck look on his face. Giggling to herself, she replied.

"You heard me. While I stand by my words from earlier about not needing Chunin who only want to test themselves, you don't seem like the type of person to make a mistake like that twice. What we do need in Chunin is a shinobi willing to carry out their mission. No matter what. You can't quit a mission just because it seems too dangerous to take on. Nor can you quit because something unexpected happened. You're expected to see it through to the end. You chose to fight me again, even though the possibility of you never becoming a Chunin was present. For that, I believe you are worthy of passing. The day after tomorrow you are to report to training ground 44 at nine in the morning. Don't be late."

With that, Yugao vanished in a shunshin and after a few minutes of stunned silence, Naruto did the same, a large grin on his face as he disappeared.

* * *

><p>Translations:<p>

Byakugan – White Eye

Senpuu no Mai Ryuu – Dance of the Whirlwind Style

Oborozukiyo – Hazy Moon Night

Makaze – Devil's Storm

* * *

><p><strong>Making up For Lost Time's Spotlight: The Uzumaki Clan<strong>

Welcome to the first segment of the MUFLT spotlight. In these small little installments I'll be going a little more in depth with the versions of clan's/character's I've altered in this fic. First up is the Uzumaki Clan.

The MUFLT Uzumaki clan isn't too different from the one in canon. They're still Fuinjutsu masters and they retain all their longevity related abilities. What does change from canon are as follows.

In the MUFLT universe, I've made those who hail from Uzushiogakure inclined to have either Wind or Water chakra natures. Which nature they have is an important part of their Kenjutsu and Taijutsu.

The Adamantine Sealing Chains are no longer a hidden technique. In MUFLT they're classified as a Kekkei Genkai with a plethora of unique abilities that would distinguish them from someone simply trying to imitate them. The first is their preprogrammed ability to assist in Fuinjutsu, followed by their immunity to Chakra natures. Moving on, they also have three modes aside from the standard one that Kushina and Naruto demonstrate.

Next up is the Uzumaki Clan's second Kekkei Genkai, the Mugen Toshokan. As stated earlier, it allows them almost instant understanding of any Fuinjutsu they lay their eyes on. There's not much more to say about it. It's a fairly passive ability, but no less deadly considering what they can do with it.

Third is their Kenjutsu, the Senpuu no Mai. As stated within the chapter, it focuses on super fast strikes. Giving a more thorough description, I thought of the style while pondering over the name of a Digimon when I was writing one of my other fics. The Digimon's Japanese name (Omegamon) is derived from "I am the Alpha and the Omega." The name eventually made a phrase enter my mind, which was, "one is many." Essentially, the user should be extremely fast and when they strike, it is as if they only struck once, yet in all actuality, struck a number of times. The more powerful techniques of the Senpuu no Mai are defined by the number of strikes within it. Having a wind nature is also necessary to take this particular style to its limits.

Lastly, we have their style of Taijutsu, the Ryuuchouken (Flowing Fist). It's largely focused on flowing around an enemies attacks as if one is water or wind, before striking back with devastating results. There are four forms within the style. The Strike Form and the Death Form, which are mainly for the wind natured, the Intercept form for those of water nature, and the Annihilation form for those whom are both wind and water natured.

Anyway, that's it for this little segment of MUFLT spotlight.

* * *

><p>First and foremost, a thanks to my awesome beta <strong>zebzy1 <strong>for coming up with the riddles used this chapter. Without them, the riddles would have either sucked or this chapter would have taken forever to come out… or both. Also, there you guys have it. The first step forward for Hinata and Naruto. It's a small moment, but no less significant. I'll have chapter six up within the next two weeks. Till then, see you guys.


	6. Stepping Into the Forest

**AN: **Here's chapter six… now then, excuse me while I freak out. 202 reviews guys! I'm just – like – what!? This is awesome. I didn't expect to have this many in 5 chapters! I got the warm fuzzies now. Lol.

**Alternet RedSkys: **I am? I didn't think I said anything that implied any other Uchiha were alive aside from the ones we all know of.

**HOLLOWTGH: **A little sister, huh? Maybe. We'll see. I mean, I could see them having another child too. Not right now though… maybe.

**Carolyn12: **Kushina will have an effect on Sasuke alright. Whether or not it will be a lasting one has yet to be determined, though.

**SPeCTeR-117: **Actually, the regeneration Naruto has is a bit of a mix of both. It's stated that Uzumaki can mend most of their wounds quickly, but Naruto also gets his quick regeneration from Kurama.

**Ryuujin96:** I won't say whether or not Naruto will learn all forms of the taijutsu, but I will say that I don't plan for it to play second fiddle to his Kenjutsu. He will use whatever he feels best fits his current situation.

**Biofan09: **Thanks. And yeah, I get tired of the usual first exam too. Seeing it over and over is just… *sigh*

**Chewie Cookies: **Thanks again for clueing me in on the mistranslation.

As usual, a thanks to **zebzy1** for their awesome work as my beta.

Now then, let's make our first step into the Forest of Death.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Stepping into the Forest<strong>_

Naruto bounded down the stairs, smiling energetically. He had the day off since he'd completed the first exam on day one and he was intent on taking advantage of it.

_Training, training_, thought the young Namikaze over and over. His mother had promised to show him two new Kenjutsu techniques once he passed the exam and now he could finally add some more variety to his swordplay. He knew today would be a good day, the only potential downside being his father giving him another talking to.

Apparently, Yugao had talked to Minato about some mistakes Naruto made. The most glaring were his intentions to test himself and how he talked about what his techniques could do. His dad had lectured the blonde for an hour at the least later that day. It hadn't been fun and considering he'd been hoping to find Hinata and repay her around that time only made it worse. Once the lecture was over it was time to start training with his dad and he never made it out of the house. By the time training was over, he was too tired to move after all.

"Morning, Naruto."

Naruto was pulled from his thoughts by his father's voice. Looking around, he realized he'd made it to the kitchen without even noticing. If he'd kept walking he would have probably ended up running into the door.

"Morning, dad," he replied, beaming. Looking at the table he saw plates set out and he could hear his mother in the kitchen. Licking his lips, he resolved that training could wait. Taking a seat at the table, he waited for his mom to bring breakfast.

* * *

><p>Kushina watched as Minato and Naruto sat underneath a tree together, meditating. She'd been overseeing their training when it came to the Kyuubi. Right now, the two of them were trying to contact the Biju. Minato had made it clear that when he'd put the seal on Naruto, he'd hoped that one day he and the fox could become friends.<p>

The Yondaime thought there would be a day when man and Biju would need to work together. Naruto thought the idea to be cool at first, but then his father had explained that the circumstances surrounding such a moment would probably not be the best. Making sure his son understood, he explained how imperative it was to reach the Kyuubi and try to make friends. If they did not, Minato was sure there would be some grave consequences.

The Yondaime was sure the masked man would come back for the Kyuubi at some point and there was a possibility that Naruto would need the Biju's help to win the battle. If he had to fight against the masked man and the Kyuubi's influence at once, Minato wasn't sure he would be victorious. He knew the Kyuubi wouldn't accept his son right now, but Minato didn't want to waste any time. There was no telling when the masked man would come for the Kyuubi again after all.

As Kushina continued to watch her boys she was thankful that she knew the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. There were so many Genin participating in the exams that there was no way they could truly have a 1:1 ratio between test givers and test takers. That said, Kushina had to make a few Kage Bunshin yesterday and even then, they still had to test 3-4 Chunin hopefuls each. Unfortunately, some hadn't' shown up so she still had to be out and about in the village today – and that is why she loved her Kage Bunshin.

She'd have been in a terrible mood if she'd missed out on their family's breakfast chit chat and even more pissed if she hadn't been able to show Naruto a few more Uzumaki Kenjutsu techniques after breakfast. Training was something their family seemed to thoroughly enjoy and as odd as it was, they bonded quite a bit during it.

Yes, Kage Bunshin was becoming one of Kushina's favorite Jutsu. As she looked out at her son and her husband she knew she wouldn't trade a day like this for the whole world.

* * *

><p>Naruto yawned as he made his way to training ground 44. After training with his parents yesterday, the rest of the day had gone by in a blur. Aside from search for Hinata – and fail to find her – he'd run into Sakura on her way out of the library. He'd wanted to ask if she'd passed the exam, but she'd been in a hurry, only telling him that she had to go meet her new Sensei for some training.<p>

Naruto had been fairly confused to say the least.

The rest of the day was spent in meditation. After hours of it, which could have been shorter had he not kept getting distracted, he'd managed to actually dive into his mindscape. The Kyuubi had been waiting for him, knowing that Naruto was attempting to speak with him. Ever hopeful, Naruto tried befriending the fox. His dad had said it would be important since some weird mask guy would be coming for him.

The Kyuubi had initially laughed in his face before his attitude took a 180. He'd fixed Naruto with the most menacing glare the boy had ever seen as killing intent the likes of which Naruto hoped to never feel directed at him again flooded the sewer that was his mind. Following that, the Kyuubi growled, telling Naruto he was a fool and that he would be free someday before roaring and essentially kicking Naruto out of his own mind.

All things considered, Naruto thought he was off to a great start.

After such a day, one might expect the young Jinchuriki to be tired, but in fact he hadn't been able to sleep much last night. He'd been so excited for today that he just couldn't stay sleep for long. Thankfully, he'd always seemed to have an endless amount of energy so aside from being a bit sluggish – which he knew would not last – he wasn't tired at all.

Picking up his speed, Naruto quickly arrived at the outskirts of a gated forest. Looking at it, he noted that it gave off quite the ominous aura. Assuming that this was where he'd be going for the second exam, Naruto hummed, knowing that this would be quite the day.

"Looks like you passed, Dobe." Turning around, he met eyes with Sasuke. The young Uchiha was casually strolling up to his blonde teammate, hands in his pockets as usual.

"Yeah. I did fine, Teme. No thanks to you." Sasuke scoffed at the reply.

"And if you'd failed? You'd get me disqualified."

"We're on the same team, Sasuke. Whether you helped me out or not, if I'd failed, you'd have failed regardless," replied Naruto, "Were you not paying attention when that part was explained?" He added teasingly.

The Uchiha bristled at this, but before he could retort their third teammate called out to them.

"Hi Naruto. Hi Sasuke-kun," greeted Sakura, giving Sasuke a cutesy look as she called his name. Sasuke heaved an inaudible sigh, looking away from the fan girl in the process. As Sakura visibly deflated at his lack of care for her, Naruto watched the scene play out and wondered what it would be like to take Sasuke's place for once.

"Hey Sakura. Glad you passed. You worried me yesterday," said Naruto, resting his arms behind his head with a smile. Sakura nodded, offering a smile in return, though hers was somewhat strained.

"Yeah… sorry about that. I got someone to teach me Medical Ninjutsu and they're pretty strict. If I'd stopped to chat with you I would have been late and that wouldn't have ended well," replied Sakura. She sighed, thinking about her meeting with Oyone yesterday.

* * *

><p>Sakura walked into the hospital a minute to six. She'd been sitting on a bench outside for the past five minutes, waiting for the time to draw just a little close to six. She would have walked in earlier, but she figured Oyone would be busy and wouldn't want her around just yet. Thankfully for Sakura, with a Sensei like Kakashi, waiting a measly five minutes was nothing.<p>

"Looks like you're on time," said Oyone as Sakura neared the front desk, "next time just walk in early. I could see you from here." Blushing slightly, Sakura nodded.

"At the very least, I'm glad you've got the drive to become a Chunin. That's not going to be enough though. You want to be a medic-nin, yeah? Well then, I personally don't want you in the second exam if you don't know how to heal someone. You've got till midnight to learn how to heal basic wounds. If you can't then I won't be passing you. I'll be at the front desk by then, since that'll be when another one of my shifts here ends. Get going."

At a loss for words, Sakura merely nodded and made her way out of the hospital.

She'd spent the rest of that day until three in the afternoon at the river, practicing medical jutsu on a fish while reading over books on the art to make sure she was doing it right. Her progress had been very slow going in her opinion and she worried that she may not figure it out in time. Once her watch hit three Sakura resolved to go and meet Oyone in hopes of getting her help. She doubted the cranky woman would do anything – aside from fail her, but she figured she would fail regardless unless she got some help.

Once she'd made it to the hospital, Sakura was told Oyone's next desk shift would begin at four so the pinkette waited near the front desk, reading a book on Medical Ninjutsu until she arrived.

"You're back early. Giving up?"

Sakura tore her eyes away from her book and looked up. Meeting eyes with the stern gaze of Oyone, she shook her head. Before the ever-grumpy medic-nin could speak up, Sakura told her of her progress and asked the woman if she would help.

"You're asking your proctor to help you pass a test?" asked Oyone, trying to confirm if she was hearing this right. Sakura nodded nervously.

"Show me what you can do," Oyone replied as she turned and beckoned Sakura to follow. Closing her book as she got to her feet, Sakura did just that. The two soon found themselves in a vacant room down the hall from entrance. Oyone hoped no one came to the front desk as she told Sakura to do her thing.

Complying with Oyone's request, Sakura set to work on a fish that was already in the room. She assumed this must be where budding medics came to practice, as there were fish tanks within the room. After a few moments, scratches on the fish were healed, but the main problem, which was a rip in its fin, did not repair itself.

"To be honest, I didn't expect you to get this far," said Oyone as Sakura frowned. When the pinkette was about to retort she continued.

"Most people can't do what you've done by themselves and certainly not after a few hours. You must have a knack for Medical Ninjutsu. I expected you to come asking me for help a lot sooner – maybe even right after I'd given you the task. You've still got a ways to go, but you will be a good medic one day. So, how about this? You've passed this exam."

Sakura's eyes lit up, but before she could say anything Oyone cut her off.

"I like your resolve, Sakura. Not many of the other Chunin hopefuls I've tested have had the same drive as you and none of them wanted to be medics either. So, I'm going to make you an offer. Like I said, you've got a knack for Medical Ninjutsu, but you could definitely be better. How about I teach you?"

Sakura wasted no time in replying.

"Yes! I mean – um – thank you. I'd love it if you would teach me more about Medical Ninjutsu." Oyone nodded before leading the girl back to the front desk.

"I've got to work until six. Meet me back here then and we'll get started."

"I'll be here, Oyone-Sensei!" beamed Sakura.

* * *

><p>After passing her test, Sakura had gone to the library where she'd spent her time reading more about Medical Ninjutsu before she made her way back to the hospital, bumping into Naruto along the way. The pinkette had to admit, yesterday had been quite eventful for her and she honestly wouldn't change it for the world.<p>

"So, what do you guys think this next exam will be?" She asked. Her teammates shrugged, neither having any real idea aside from assuming it would be physical. With that as a basis, they jumped into a conversation about the exams, not even noticing as more and more teams arrived. They'd have continued to chat and plan, but were put on alert when a smoke bomb went off around the teams.

When the smoke cleared, they saw a banner hanging from a tree that read, "welcome to the second exam!" Below the banner stood a purple haired woman in fairly revealing clothes. Aside from trench coat that covered her arms and her backside there was little left to the imagination.

"Hey there, brats! I'm Mitarashi Anko, your proctor for this part of the Chunin exams. It looks like 20 teams made it through. No worries, I'll make sure this exam cuts that in half at the least," said Anko, grinning. Some Genin had to repress a shiver.

Kiba snorted, yelling that nothing she could dish out would stop his team from winning. Shortly after that his arrogance was scared out of him when a Kunai flew passed his cheek, cutting into it and drawing blood. As if that wasn't enough, Anko had already appeared behind him. Licking the blood off his cheek, she replied.

"Brats like you die the fastest."

Kiba gulped and Akamaru retreated into his partner's hood. Smirking at a job well done scaring the Genin, Anko prepared to make her way back to the front of the group until she caught a very long tongue in her peripheral vision. Immediately on guard, Anko whipped around to see a Kusa kunoichi behind her, a kunai being held by her tongue.

"Your kunai, Mitarashi-san." Narrowing her eyes, Anko reached out and took her kunai back.

"Thanks…"

_Some Genin snuck up on me? I don't believe that… I better keep an eye on this one_, thought Anko as she reclaimed her spot in front of the Genin. Wiping the frown off her face, she spoke up again.

"I'm not one for long explanations, so here's how it's going to go. Each team is going to get a scroll of heaven or a scroll of earth. Then you brats are going to be sent into the forest. In the forest is a tower. That's where you need to get to. Find it. You've got five days to make it there, but you need both scrolls with you when you get there to pass. In other words, steal them from another team. If you open your scrolls before you're in the tower your team is disqualified."

"Five days?!" Yelled Choji, "What about food?!" A redhead Kumo Kunoichi glanced his way, her brow arched. She wondered if he was being serious because the answer to his question should be obvious. Snorting to herself, she looked away thinking that Konoha ninja were ridiculous.

"There's plenty to eat in the forest," grinned Anko, "just make sure it doesn't eat you first. On that note…" she trailed off as she reached into her trench coat and retrieved some papers.

"I'm going to need you brats to sign these."

"Why?" asked a Taki kunoichi. She had tanned skin, green hair, and orange eyes.

"Because you guys are going to be fighting over these scrolls and this exam has no rules. Basically, we need to make sure your villages don't come trying to start a war with us when one of their teams dies in this forest."

No one said anything after that. The mood was setting in now. They could really die in these exams.

* * *

><p>Team 7 had just turned in their waivers and had collected their scroll. They'd gotten an Earth scroll and now that they were waiting for the exam to start, they were trying to figure out what to do with it.<p>

"Give me the scroll," said Naruto. Sasuke and Sakura gave him a look. A look that clearly wondered if he was serious.

"Why would we do that, Naruto?" asked Sasuke, scowling, "You screw up. _A lot. _Give us one good reason why we should let you hold onto this?" he asked, waving the scroll in front of the blonde, his voice dripping with _bastard._

"Because I'm better at Fuinjutsu than you'll ever be and I can easily seal the scroll where no one can get it?" retorted Naruto, a challenging smile on his lips.

"You? Fuinjutsu?" Sasuke mocked, scoffing, "Kakashi-Sensei told us how good your clan was with it, but I've seen Fuinjutsu. I've even tried to study it myself, though my interest in it was brief. I can't believe that you got something so complicated down, Dobe." Frowning, Naruto snatched the scroll from Sasuke faster than the Uchiha was prepared for. Pulling up the orange sleeve on his right arm, Naruto pressed his left hand into his shoulder and after a moment Fuinjutsu script appeared.

Naruto remembered how he'd had to sit and write out all his Fuinjutsu up until the last two weeks of his training. He didn't mind it, as he was able to do it rather quickly by then, but when his parents had taught him how to apply Fuinjutsu script without needing anything but his hands and his chakra he'd been ecstatic. It was hard to learn, and he'd spent a majority of his (Kage Bunshins') time working on it, but eventually he got it down. The young Jinchuriki could easily imagine _so many possibilities _with being able to quickly apply Fuinjutsu like that.

Touching the scroll to the fresh script on his shoulder, Naruto sealed the scroll away before covering the seal up with his sleeve again.

"I'm an Uzumaki, Teme. The sealing arts are basically in my blood," grinned Naruto triumphantly. His teammates didn't know how literal that statement was.

Sasuke gave a small smirk, now even more interested in how much his blonde rival had grown. Sakura merely looked on, slightly amazed with Naruto's skill in sealing. She'd read up on it after Kakashi had talked about the Uzumaki clan and she knew that being able to create Fuinjutsu without nothing but your hands and chakra was quite the advanced technique. Certainly, no beginner could do it.

"So, you guys heard about my clan?" asked Naruto. Sakura nodded and Sasuke merely grunted before speaking up.

"I've actually been meaning to ask you about that… and maybe talk to the two clan members who have been teaching you too…"

"Why?" asked Naruto, hoping Sasuke wasn't going to try and get training from them. Not that he could really learn much anyway – on that note, Naruto also wondered what he'd meant by "two clan members." Aside from himself, there was only one living Uzumaki Clan member he knew of and that was his mother. Briefly, Naruto wondered what exactly Kakashi had told his team.

"It's… personal," replied Sasuke, glancing at Sakura briefly, "I'll tell you later." Though confused, the blonde nodded.

"Now that that's out of the way," said Sakura, "what's our plan inside the Forest?"

"I say we use the first day for recon," offered Sasuke. Usually, he'd prefer to just rush into a fight while keeping his wits about him, but Kakashi had made him realize he needed to think a bit more tactically if he wanted to be a Chunin. As Sasuke rubbed his arm at the mere thought of the memory, he wondered why his cyclops of a Sensei couldn't have made the lesson less painful.

"That sounds fine with me," replied Naruto, "I can send out some henged Kage Bunshin while the three of us find a place to set up a base of sorts."

His teammates would have given him an odd look at his sound strategy, but they were starting to get used to him being a little smarter. As long as he didn't do anything too surprising (which he was bound to do eventually – this was Naruto we're talking about, after all) they wouldn't be caught off guard with him knowing more than before.

"I can set up a Genjutsu around our little camp," said Sakura, contributing to their plans, "I learned a pretty good one from Kurenai-Sensei that should work very well for misguiding any would be attackers. I can also weave a Genjutsu while we're searching for a camp. That way it's less likely we'll be followed. As long as they're not a Hyuga this should work. The Genjutsu I learned was mid Chunin level. No normal Genin should be able to detect it."

Sasuke gave his usual "Hn" and Naruto smiled, about to reply when Anko spoke up once again.

"Okay brats! It's the moment of truth. The Second exam starts now!"

The gates opened and Genin began to make their way into the forest from all sorts of different locations. Team 7 did the same while putting their plan into action. Sakura activated her Genjutsu while Naruto created a horde of Kage Bunshin, transformed to look like animals as they ran into the forest, taking to the trees.

* * *

><p>First of all, I know the chapter is somewhat short compared to the last one, but I didn't want to start the actual second exam just yet. That said, I decided to have this one wrap up some loose ends from last chapter as well as expand on some character skills, show some small snippets of growth, as well as vaguely introduce some characters that will be important as the story progresses. Can you guys guess who they are? I bet you can.<p>

Moving on, I was looking to start Sakura's medic training earlier than in canon and then I realized that with neither Shizune nor Tsunade in the village, I'd need to take another route. That's when I checked to see what other medics were in Konoha and stumbled across Oyone. She helped Shizune during the war, so she must be quite skilled, right? You don't just get to work alongside a medic as good as Shizune without being anywhere near her skill level. With that in mind, I figured she'd be the perfect teacher for Sakura early on.

I'll be trying to release a new chapter of all my fics before or on Christmas, so while I won't say one will (or won't) be out within the next two weeks, I promise you will definitely get chapter seven before the month is over and it will be the start of Naruto's adventures in the Forest of Death. Till then, see you guys.

Also, with the release of this chapter a poll is going up. I've got a question I want to ask everyone.


	7. Encounters in the Leaves

**AN: **Here's chapter seven. I'm so sorry it's out late, but my family kind of threw a curveball. I suddenly had to go on a trip with them and before it began all I'd been able to finish was a chapter for one of my other fics. I didn't even have time to type while on the trip. :/ After that, I started another semester of University again, so I've not had as much time to type. I'm sorry guys. It's finally here now though. The actual start to the Forest of Death. Hope you all like it.

As usual, a thanks to **zebzy1** for their awesome work as my beta. I'm lucky they help me iron out so many of my ideas.

**thetizzler: **Thanks for pointing that out to me. It's been fixed.

**thor94: **No. there was no second Uzumaki. Kakashi merely said that to cover up that Kushina _and _Minato would be training him. As a way to keep Minato's identity a secret he merely told the Genin that two Uzumaki would be helping Naruto.

**Planetary Maelstrom: **Even if there may be times were it takes me a bit longer to post than usual (like this chapter) I have no plans of abandoning this fic.

**kippusan**: Karin won't be mauled. Aside from that I won't say much else as you will probably have a guess as to what will happen to her by the end of this chapter. My plans for Sasuke will remain shrouded in mystery for a bit longer, as will what I plan to do with Orochimaru as well as Danzo's next appearance. Also I think the chakra sharing ability Naruto and his father shared had more to do with the Kyuubi than the two of them.

**Nightshadegirl: **Choji and Karui may be a pairing here. If I go ahead and do it, I've already had her notice him. I also think Kishi threw a major curveball there, so this would give me a chance to actually have some development between them.

**ViciousFitz:** Thank you and yes, sometimes I'm not a fan of reading through chapters completely dedicated to the details of his training. They're nice every once in a while, but they do wear on one's nerves. Personally, since Naruto will be bringing so many new techniques to the table in this fic, I won't be going into too much detail with his training sessions, as I'd like some of the things he's capable of to be a surprise.

Now then, let's get this started.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Encounters in the Leaves<strong>_

"This should do," said Sasuke as he pulled his Kunai from the neck of a rather large tiger. It made a wet, squelching noise as it left the beast's flesh. Flicking the blood off his weapon, he dropped it back into its pouch as he watched Naruto make another batch of henged Kage Bunshin while Sakura weaved the Genjutsu that would make finding the three of them all the more difficult.

"Not the best place to be living for a few days – if it even takes us that long to find a heaven scroll – but it'll do, ttebayo," Naruto replied as his clones fanned out. Currently the three of them were in front of a cave. It had been where the tiger was living. When Team 7 had stumbled across the place the beast made the mistake of attacking instead of fleeing and it had to pay for such transgressions with its life.

"What now?" asked Sakura, having finished her Genjutsu.

"We should do some recon, of course," Sasuke responds.

"Don't worry about that," Naruto interrupts as they walk into the cave, lighting up the dark space thanks to a small Katon jutsu that Sasuke knew, "My clones will handle that. They won't have any trouble finding a scroll or the tower and we'll know as soon as they do."

"Then what are we supposed to do in the meantime? I don't like sitting around," Sasuke retorts. The young avenger certainly wasn't as hyperactive as Naruto, but aside from when he was in class during the academy or waiting on Kakashi to arrive he never just sat around. He was always training and if he wasn't, he was reading up on new training methods and techniques, eating, or sleeping. There were other little moments too, like when he's making sure he's well groomed for the day, but he didn't really consider moments such as those.

"Maybe we should talk?" Sakura suggests, earning her a look from the Uchiha. He wasn't about to share anything from his personal life with the pinkette. Realizing that she should probably clarify, she continued.

"I don't mean anything casual… We've not functioned as an actual team for the past two months and we've all learned new things. Don't you think we should have an understanding of what each of us can do? It will help when we coordinate attacks."

Sasuke gave his usual "Hn." Now that he understood what she was suggesting, he didn't have any objections. Looking to Naruto, he saw that the blonde also found the suggestion to be a good one. With that, the two gave their agreement and Team 7 started a conversation about their techniques.

* * *

><p>As Team 7 discussed each other's new abilities, Team 8 flew through the trees. Unlike Team 7, they opted to quickly find a scroll and head for the tower. They had better recon skills than Team 7, and with that said, they could easily do it on the move. With Shino's kikaichu all around the forest, they would have the location of the tower in no time. Hinata had picked out a team with an Earth scroll before actually entering the forest using her byakugan and Kiba had caught their scent after she'd pointed them out.<p>

The team they'd selected was a group of Ame-nin. They seemed to be relatively strong, but Team 8 knew they were better. Having entered the forest from a different area than the Ame-nin, they had some ground to cover before they reached them. Despite that, they were making good time and Hinata was positive they'd make contact within the next hour or so.

As they leapt through the trees, Hinata's mind drifted to Naruto. She knew it wasn't smart to get distracted while in a situation such as this, but sometimes she just couldn't help it when it came to her blonde crush. Hinata had heard that Naruto had been looking for her yesterday. Apparently, he'd ran into Shino while searching for her and asked the Aburame where she was. Shino didn't know and told him as much, prompting the boy to give his thanks regardless of the answer before offering a quick good bye and leaving to continue his search.

Hinata didn't want to get her hopes up too much, but she had a hunch as to why he may be looking for her. He promised her that they'd eat cinnamon buns together and while she hadn't fully expected him to remember the promise, so far it seemed like he did. She knew Naruto never went back on his word – it was his nindo after all. With that in mind, she was sure that he would take her out for those cinnamon buns. She just hadn't expected him to be trying so soon.

Despite what one may think, the Hyuga heiress was even happy he hadn't found her. She still wanted to eat with him of course, but if it had happened so soon she would have had no time to prepare. Aside from preparing herself mentally, she also wanted to prepare herself physically. She intended to take the words of her riddle to heart and so when the time came for him to treat her, Hinata wanted to make an impression on the boy. She doubted she could do something that would make her feelings known, but she hoped she could at least make him see her as someone worthy of having a relationship with.

The heiress was no fool. Hinata knew that would require a huge amount of mental strength on her part, as well as a bit of a make-over. She didn't think anything was wrong with what she usually wore, no, not at all. Hinata was positive that she could even make an impression while in her usual attire too – provided she try hard enough, of course. The thing is, she just wanted a… little extra "umph." A greater affect, so to speak. She'd made up her mind to be a bit bolder and deciding to leave her comfort zone, wearing something a bit different was the first step she chose.

"Kiba, Hinata," called Shino, rousing the timid Hyuga from her thoughts, "My Kikaichu have returned and they have located the tower. Following our retrieval of the scroll we shall not waste any time before going there."

With the location of the tower now known, the three of them picked up their pace. They didn't want their targets getting taken down before they got to them.

* * *

><p>As the Genin ran around in the forest, Anko looked at the congregation of trees that made it up from outside the gate. The batch of Genin seemed decent this year, she almost felt bad that half of them would most likely not be leaving the forest alive – almost. Shrugging at the losses that would certainly occur, Anko was about to quickly grab some dango to snack on before someone called to her.<p>

"What is it?" she sighed, irritably as she turned to see two fellow Konoha-nin. They were interrupting dango time. She did not appreciate that.

"There's a problem… you've got to see this."

Grumbling, she wondered why they couldn't have taken care of the problem themselves as she followed them. Did they really need to involve her? What could possibly happen that they couldn't handle by themselves? Realizing what she was thinking, Anko cleared her mind, pushing the irritation out. She shouldn't let her annoyance take over for her.

Thinking it over again, she knew that the two Shinobi knew better. They wouldn't call her unless something serious had happened, especially since the second exam had only just begun. Problems this early? Really? Such a thing was unheard of. Stopping near some bushes that were close to the forest, the two Konoha-nins told her to look for herself. Going along with them, she did just that.

And then she swore.

"When did you find this?" Anko asked as she examined the three bodies further. They were Kusa-nin. The Genin that she saw enter the forest to be exact. Of course, now she knew that wasn't them. What's worse is she only knew of one jutsu that could leave a corpse in this state… Only one man used such a vile technique that stole the faces of his victims.

"Only moments before we alerted you." Nodding, Anko told the two of them to find some medic-nins as she jumped onto a tree branch. They may have been dead – as if Orochimaru would leave any witnesses – but there may be something they could discover from their corpses.

"Make sure we have all the information on them before you find me again, got it? I'm going to talk to the Hokage. This is serious," and with that she was gone.

* * *

><p>"Troublesome," sighed Shikamaru as Choji rolled past him, tearing through anything that dared obstruct his path, "Should we really be helping a team from another village?" He asked, despite the fact that he was going along with this anyway. A few minutes ago, Choji had stumbled across a team of Kumo-nin. They looked worse for wear; they were bruised, scratched, bleeding here and there, and one of them couldn't seem to stand. Had that been all that was wrong, Shikamaru would have stopped Choji from helping – though he doubted he'd have to. The young Akimichi knew better than to help another team just because they looked a little injured. They could easily be faking.<p>

Of course, that wasn't why he was helping. Aside from looking injured, various carnivorous creatures surrounded them; giant bears, equally large tigers, and unnecessarily big spiders (which Ino had almost freaked out over when she saw them). As far as Choji had been concerned, that was enough reason to help.

As Ino made her way to the injured Shinobi, Shikamaru weaved through hand signs.

"Kagemane no Jutsu," he called, his shadow stretching out and capturing the animals and insects that were preparing to attack. There were a lot of them, but ever since Asuma had increased their training (and his mother found out about it) the number of things he could restrain with his shadow had been increasing. This would be no trouble for him. Besides, he knew he wouldn't have to hold the creatures for long.

Right before Choji rammed into the first tiger, Shikamaru's shadow receded from it. The Tiger was brought down while Choji and Shikamaru repeated the process until all of the creatures had been soundly defeated. Their work done, the two of them walked over to Ino and the injured Kumo-nin.

"Thanks…" said one of the girls. She was a redhead.

"You're lucky Choji's such a softy," commented Shikamaru, ignoring the indignant "hey!" he received from his friend, "I personally thought helping out would have been troublesome." The redhead turned to Choji now, offering her thanks.

"Well, it was nothing," he replied, bashfully, "glad I could help."

"It wasn't nothing to us," the redhead replied, "You saved our lives and for that we thank you. I'm Karui, by the way. These are my teammates, Omoi and Samui."

Choji nodded and proceeded to introduce himself and the members of his team. As he did so, Karui looked at him and couldn't help but take back the thoughts she'd had about him before the test began. He was a better Shinobi than she'd thought.

* * *

><p>Minato stood to the side of Hiruzen as the two men worked on their paperwork. Around them was their Kage Bunshin doing the same thing. When Minato had asked Hiruzen why he didn't just use Kage Bunshin for his paperwork one day, the old Hokage had looked at him with wide eyes and then immediately grasped the bridge of his nose, heaved a loud sigh, and said he was ashamed of himself for not thinking of it earlier. He was the Professor, he should have realized such a thing, shouldn't he?<p>

Now Hiruzen had finally discovered the secret to defeating the demon that was his paperwork – except it didn't really matter anymore. He was retired and the only reason he was acting as Hokage right now was because they'd yet to announce Minato's survival and due to the exams, there were bound to be Shinobi entering his office today that would not be privy to that particular secret. Minato was disguised thanks to the Uzumaki seal resting on his shoulder, but it would still raise unnecessary questions if any of his subordinates saw some Shinobi they didn't recognize sitting at the Hokage's desk.

It would prove to be a very good idea, as there was a knock on the Hokage's door right then.

"You may enter," called Hiruzen, he and Minato looking away from the paperwork as they dismissed their Kage Bunshin. Opening the door, Anko stepped in, a very grave look on her face as she closed the doors to the Hokage's office behind her.

"Hokage-sama, we have a problem," she reported, not intending to beat around the bush.

"And that is?" asked Hiruzen in Minato's place. As far as the Yondaime was concerned, he'd merely scowled at the news and hoped it had nothing to do with Naruto.

"Just a few minutes ago, some of my subordinates for the second exam found three bodies belonging to a team of Kusa Genin," she replied, "Now, considering the nature of the second exam I wouldn't find this unusual except for the fact that the corpses were found outside the testing ground. That in itself is a cause for alarm, as it means someone had killed them before the start of the exam, but the true problem lies in _who _did it. The state of the corpses upon my arrival at the scene answered that question – and it definitely isn't good news."

"Who was it?" asked Hiruzen, grimacing. The Genin had been killed before the exam? It would have had to happen before Anko met with the teams or she would have known something was amiss. The Sandaime knew this could possibly lead to some political complications as well. If they hoped to avoid such a problem, they would need to find the one responsible before the second exam reached its end.

"The corpses had their faces removed," she replied. Hiruzen's eyes widened as Minato's fists clenched behind his back. He'd heard of the atrocities committed by Orochimaru after his "death" and he found them to be unacceptable. He could only imagine what could have happened to Naruto if Orochimaru had known of the boy's identity and it made him nauseous just thinking about it.

"Orochimaru is here," replied Hiruzen, an undertone of sadness and anger lacing his words. Orochimaru had been his favorite at one time. The boy had seemingly been much like himself, but he was too greedy and a very jealous soul. He believed what he wanted was his by right and his obsession with immortality had led to many atrocities within the village. Hiruzen had made the mistake of letting him get away years ago and he'd regretted it then. Now, after the most recent events with Danzo he regretted it even more. He wouldn't allow him to leave this village alive.

"If he stole the faces of those Kusagakure Genin then there is little doubt he is within the forest," said Minato. The Sandaime and Anko agreed.

"Anko, gather Anbu and go into the forest and search for him. We must stop his plans, whatever they may be," here, Hiruzen looks to his seemingly vacant couch, "Fox, accompany her and alert me once you have found him." The once vacant couch remained vacant for a moment before someone came into view. She was a redhead with a fox mask adorning her face – Kushina.

"At once, Sandaime-sama." With that, the two of them left the room.

"This time, I will finish him," said Hiruzen, frowning at the battle to come. Minato looked to him a frown on his face as well.

"No, you won't. I understand that you feel responsible for him, Hiruzen. While you are undoubtedly a powerful Shinobi, even you must realize what would happen if you were to face Orochimaru as you are now," Minato says. The Sandaime went to protest, a slight twinge of insult in his eyes. He knew he was old, but he still had his pride and he was still a powerful Shinobi. Minato would not let him interrupt though. Hiruzen needed to hear this.

"The odds are not in your favor; with age comes wisdom, but it also comes with weakness to a degree. You're no longer in your prime and surely Orochimaru has calculated a fight with you into whatever his plan may be. He's ready and we are not. I'm not going to let you die in a battle with him after you've finally retired either. No, I'll take care of Orochimaru."

Hiruzen wished to give a retort of some sort, but Minato's reasoning was sound; Hiruzen could say nothing. Heaving yet another sigh, he complied with his successor.

* * *

><p>A Naruto clone raced through the forest, its henge gone. At this point, it was acting as a decoy in order to lead away anyone who may be close to their hideout. He felt he could trust Sakura's Genjutsu, but better safe than sorry, right? The clone was just about to dispel itself when it heard a scream. Curious as to what it may be, the clone cautiously leapt trough the canopy until he was looking down at a redheaded Kusa-nin cowering away from an abnormally large bear. Taking a quick look around, the clone didn't see any of her teammates, though he noted blood on the bear's claws. It could be a Genjutsu, but the clone wasn't identifying any of the signs either.<p>

_This is real_, thought the clone. Her team was already dead, she obviously couldn't fight back. With no reason to just leave her, the clone jumped down, giving a battle cry to draw the beast's attention away from the girl. With a growl, the bear looked to the sky – just in time for the clone to land next to it as chains freed themselves from its right arm.

The Kusa-nin watched as the chains twisted around Naruto's arm, encasing it and coming to a sharp point just ahead of where his fist had been. Dodging beneath the swing of a paw, The clone thrust it's arm forward and with a pained roar the bear was impaled. Though severely injured, the beast didn't die. Enraged, it tried for another swing – but it never made it. Its body twitched before bumps squirmed along its fur. In the next second, with a spray of blood and a sickly sounding wet noise, the chains emerged from the beast's chest, back, stomach, and neck before vanishing like ghosts.

The bear fell to the ground as the Naruto clone moved to the side in order to avoid the corpse. Looking to his right side, he met eyes with the Kusa-nin and she backed away, frightened.

"Are you okay?" asked the clone. The Kusa-nin could only nod. "Did it kill your team?" She nodded again.

"If you want, you could come with my team to the tower," proposed the clone, "Though I would like to ask if you still have your scroll – and which one it is of course."

"I – I have a Scroll of Heaven." The clone's face lit up at her words.

"Really?! That's awesome! You think my team could have it? We need one." asked the clone excitedly. The Kusa-nin only nodded again, adjusting her glasses. The boy had just saved her and her team was dead. What would she need the scroll for anyway?

"Great! Oh, you know what? I haven't even gotten your name yet."

"I'm Karin – Uzumaki Karin."

The clone's jaw dropped.

* * *

><p>Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had just finished their little discussion when Naruto stiffened. He'd just gotten some information from one of his Kage Bunshin.<p>

"We know where the tower is now," said Naruto. Earning a nod from Sasuke as Sakura asked where.

"It's in the center of the Forest. Not too long of a run if we go full speed."

"Hn," was Sasuke's reply, "all we need now is a scroll then."

"Nah. I've got that covered!" Came Naruto' energetic reply. Sasuke had been looking at him though and his mouth hadn't moved. Looking around they saw one of Naruto's Kage Bunshin approaching with a redhead at its side.

"Who's that with you?" asked Sakura, standing to her feet and drawing a Kunai. She immediately began to wonder if the clone was a fake… though she knew such a thing was unlikely. Naruto had just recently explained this jutsu and the amount of chakra it requires. The odds of someone else knowing it in the forest were miniscule.

Sasuke had a reaction much like Sakura, though he leaned more towards it being an elaborate Genjutsu. He couldn't place when they could have gotten caught in it though and besides, the enemy would have needed to get through Sakura's Genjutsu first. He probably wouldn't admit it to her face, but she was good. There was no way any Genin in this forest aside from himself or a Hyuga would have seen through it. Still, intending to be safe than sorry, Sasuke flashed his Sharingan, but the only Genjutsu he noticed was Sakura's. No, what he was seeing was real.

"Why'd you bring someone back?" asked the original Naruto.

"Well, you see boss, her team was killed by a really big bear and I saved her. I said she could come to the tower with us in exchange for her scroll and she had a Heaven. That's not even the best part though! Wait until you get these memories!" exclaimed the clone, his excitement evident to all those around before it dispelled. Naruto stiffened which led Sasuke and Sakura to relax a little bit. Since he was actually receiving memories it meant the clone was really his.

"Holy crap…" said Naruto, shocked, "This is awesome!" he exploded, running towards Karin and enveloping her in a hug.

"What's going on, Dobe?" scowled Sasuke.

"Guys! She – me… I can't believe it, dattebayo!"

"Can't believe what, Naruto?" inquired Sakura, slightly annoyed at the lack of sense her blonde teammate was making.

_He'd been doing so well too_, she thought to herself.

_**Everything up until now was probably just a fluke**_, snorted inner Sakura, though the more dominant of the two found that to be unlikely.

"Guys, Karin's an Uzumaki! I can't believe this! I found more family!" Karin blushed at the fuss her new-found relative was making over her. She'd thought the clone's reaction was excessive… she'd been wrong. Initially, when she'd told Naruto her name he'd seemed almost insulted after overcoming his shock. That resulted in some questioning from him, but after showing the blonde the family tree she'd received from her mother (on her death bed) he believed her after determining the document was real – something he'd learned to identify thanks to his mother.

After that, his attitude did a 180 and he told her he was an Uzumaki too. She was more believing than he was; having vaguely remembered a story her mother told her about how the Uzumaki clan could use the Adamantine Sealing Chains. Her surprise wasn't as extravagant as his either, but she was certainly _very _happy. She never thought she would be able to meet another clan member, yet here he was. Standing in front of her after saving her life. Karin didn't feel as alone in the world as she had only moments ago – she felt she could belong somewhere again.

As far as the remaining members of team seven were concerned, their reactions varied. Sakura was pleasantly surprised. She congratulated her teammate, genuinely happy that he was able to meet someone of his clan. Sasuke congratulated him too, though there was a very apparent undertone of envy. The Uchiha could only wish something like this would happen to him, but he was no fool. Every Uchiha had been at the compound when Itachi struck. There were no survivors – none aside from him. Now in a significantly fouler mood, Sasuke decided to be a party-pooper.

"We have a scroll now and we know where the tower is. Can we not waste anymore time?" grumbled the avenger, drawing everyone's attention before turning his back to them and jumping up onto a branch. As Sakura followed suit, Karin leaned over and whispered to Naruto.

"What's his problem?" asked Karin, frowning slightly. She thought that the boy with the duck-butt for hair was very rude. Naruto hummed, thinking over what might be the problem as he also took to the trees, Karin following behind him. Eventually, he had a guess that he was pretty sure was right.

"Sasuke lost his clan like us… the difference was that he was alive to see it happen and he was the only one that was spared death. I'm pretty sure he's just upset that I was able to meet another clan member and he'll never get that chance… well, he will… but he'd only get to meet his brother – the one responsible for his clan's destruction," Naruto replied.

He'd heard from his parents why Sasuke probably acted the way he did – not that they condoned it, but he understood why the boy was so caustic all the time. When his father told him that Itachi, Sasuke's own older brother had killed everyone in the clan, Naruto couldn't believe it. He couldn't imagine anyone doing that to their own family. It certainly made the blonde look at the boy that was Uchiha Sasuke in a different light. He understood now who the person was that Sasuke was so intent on killing.

Karin only offered a solemn nod in response to the explanation. She understood what losing someone right in front of your eyes was like.

* * *

><p>Hinata trembled as she watched the youngest of the Suna Shinobi lift an Ame-nin into the air with his sand before the Ame-nin was killed, crushed with the sand in such a way that his blood literally exploded outward, showering down on the clearing the Suna-nin and the remaining Ame-nin were doing battle. As she looked on, she wondered how her team had gotten into this situation. They could have avoided this, she knew it. They'd already gotten the scroll they needed from a different team of Ame Shinobi, they could have just gone to the tower – but Kiba suggested thinning out the ranks.<p>

Kiba's idea sounded good at the time. Team 8 knew they were close to a few teams and if they took them out it would be less competition in the remaining exam. Nothing about it sounded like a bad idea and their confidence had been rather high since they defeated the Ame-nin so easily. Now though, they realized they should have seriously thought about what they would do if they encountered a stronger team. Thinning out the ranks wasn't worth this risk. Hiding behind some bushes for cover as they watched Gaara (now that they remembered whom the boy was from when Naruto had brought him up) effortlessly kill the remaining Ame-nin, Kiba motioned for them to wait for the Suna team to leave before taking off themselves as Gaara and his siblings discussed something.

Hinata and Shino agreed without question, neither of the two thinking that sneaking away would be a good idea at the time. They continued to watch as Gaara's bloodlust rose, permeating the whole area. It was obvious he wanted to kill more. The oppressive feeling of his killing intent bore down on them, causing Akamaru to whine. Kiba tried to quiet the pup, but it was already too late.

Gaara had noticed them.

With a flick on his wrist, the sand rushed to them. Hinata had noticed Gaara's shift in attention to the three of them a split second before Kiba and Shino. She'd used it wisely, jumping away from the deadly mineral. Shino hadn't noticed Gaara's attention on them as quickly as Hinata, but he'd swiftly performed a kawarimi to escape. Kiba was the only one among them who hadn't been so lucky. He'd been trying to quiet Akamaru when Gaara noticed them, and he was still busy with his dog when the sand came at him. It was only a fraction of a second that allowed Gaara to trap him before he could kawarimi, but obviously that's all the deranged redhead needed.

Now Kiba was screaming, the sand crushing him. As Gaara squeezed the Inuzuka only wished the Suna-nin would make his death as swift as the Ame-nin before him.

"Kiba!"

* * *

><p>Karin and Team 7 were making good time through the forest, the four of them flew through the trees at a brisk pace, not wanting to get held up by any enemy teams that might try to take a shot at them, not that they were really worried about that. Sakura's Genjutsu was doing its stuff expertly. The four of them had already come across two enemy teams, yet they hadn't been noticed at all.<p>

"At this rate we'll be at the tower in no time. Think about it guys, we'll be the only team to have made it through the exam without having to lift a finger in an actual fight. Wouldn't that be cool?" questioned Naruto enthusiastically. His father would probably like to hear that. They'd gotten through the exam with nothing but stealth and a bit of familial help courtesy of Karin. There hadn't been a moment where anyone could have observed their skills, which meant that they'd have nothing but surprised to show off in the next exam. Oh yeah, Naruto just _knew _Minato would be proud of him.

"You shouldn't speak so soon, Naruto. You never know what could happen," Sasuke replied, now significantly more calm than he was after Karin had joined them.

"Shut up, Teme! Stop being such a spoil sport. Can't you just enjoy when good things happen?" Naruto retorted with a frown.

Little did he know that Sasuke would be right – and he soon found himself taking back his words when a giant snake leapt up from the ground below. The four of them managed to dodge the attack, albeit barely. As Naruto landed on a branch next to Sasuke, the Uchiha gave him a look that basically translated into "I told you so."

"Shut up, Sasuke…"

"Hn."

Their slight banter didn't last any longer because the snake struck out again, aiming for them. Sasuke jumped above it, weaving hand signs for his ever reliable Gokakyu no Jutsu. The ball of fire bore down on the snake as Naruto dropped from the branch as he too weaved hand signs.

"Inton: Kusari Kyokuba!"

Chains emerged from Naruto's back, weaving together as they created six large conglomerations of chains. Large, sharp, arrowhead shaped tips were the heads of the congregations of chains. Before the snake could even hope to react, Sasuke's fireball crashed into its head, searing the skin immediately as the six massive chains impaled the enormous reptile.

The snake was dead before Naruto or Sasuke landed on another branch.

Karin and Sakura rejoined them, and just as the pinkette was about to suggest a strategy a chuckle sounded from above. Looking to the branches above them, they saw one of the Kusa-nin from before the exam, specifically the one with the long tongue.

"My my. You are all so much better than I expected. That snake was supposed to have killed at least one of you and separate the others – yet what do I find? My precious pet defeated so effortlessly… This will be more enjoyable than I thought," smirked the Kusa-nin as he began to radiate killing intent more vile and potent than what they'd felt from Zabuza – and that meant a lot to them. Goose bumps instantly sprouted to life across their skin as they went on the defense. Whoever this guy was, he was dangerous.

"Now then," said the Kusa-nin, his tongue momentarily flicking out of his mouth as his smirk broadened, "shall we play?"

* * *

><p>Katon – Fire Release<p>

Kagemane no Jutsu – Shadow Imitation Technique

Kusagakure no Sato – Village Hidden in the Grass

Kawarimi no jutsu – Substitution Technique

Gokakyu no Jutsu – Grand Fireball Technique

Inton – Yin Release

Kusari Kyokuba – Chain Circus

Karin has safely joined up with Naruto and team 7 only to have a run in with the treacherous Snake Sannin of Konoha, Kushina and Anko enter the forest in order to locate Orochimaru, and Kiba's in a nasty pinch. I wonder how everyone will turn out? I'm sure you'll all find out in the next chapter. Again, sorry about the wait for this chapter. Till then, see you guys.


End file.
